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Comment by Kim_Bruning | Hacker News Reader

Software that your life depends on should be required to respect the four software freedoms (run, study, copy, modify). If the four freedoms don't apply in the context of your own bodily autonomy, where else could they be more important?

(Consider the inverse: Parts of your own body are not your property but are merely licensed to you, and the license can be modified or withdrawn at the pleasure of the licensor)

Legislation might be required.

(edit: this would not be without precedent. Copyright and Patents are very limited when it comes to life essentials in general, such as recipes for food or designs for clothing.)

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2 cents : But then there should be a contract between the user who gains the ability to read/modify the software, discharging the software company in case the user causes a bug resulting in a health problem or even worse. Or something like that I suppose.

Most open source licenses already include that in a "no warranty" clause that is supposed to cover this.

I don't know anything about law, but it looks like in jurisdictions where this clause doesn't apply, signing a separate contract wouldn't help either: https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/1410/do-warranty-dis...

But that's pretty much the opposite of how medical device certification works.

> If the four freedoms don't apply in the context of your own bodily autonomy, where else could they be more important?

I’ve got bad news unfortunately. Bodily autonomy has never really been all that free in practice for the last few thousand years at least. We’re making some progress at least.

> Bodily autonomy has never really been all that free in practice for the last few thousand years at least. We’re making some progress at least.

In the context of the repeal of Roe V Wade....

Or the ruling in the first place…

Right to someone else’s blood supply via placenta?

The rules are different for parents. It's almost universally agreed that (at least once born) a child's needs are more important than parents' freedom.

Really depends which country you're in. Even just the west is not homogeneous on this point.

> (Consider the inverse: Parts of your own body are not your property but are merely licensed to you, and the license can be modified or withdrawn at the pleasure of the licensor)

This has been pretty much a cyberpunk trope since Neuromancer. Nice job making the dystopia reality, capitalism.

> Legislation might be required

Definitely required.

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