Comment by Teckla | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Teckla | Hacker News Reader

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I agree with this: "well, its my body" but not with this: "I don't find it moral to prevent somebody from doing something today, because $HYPOTHETICAL_BAD_THING might happen tomorrow"

You do realize that in many, many countries, you can buy antibiotics over the counter, right? Nearby countries like Mexico, and far away countries like India (with a huge population)? And that people are buying them and using them constantly?

Sure, there's the risk of antibiotic resistant bacteria developing, but the U.S. isn't going to stop that from happening no matter how difficult they make it for people to buy and use the drugs they need.

I'm starting to lose patience with people trying to take away the right of other people to control their own body.

And it's not just antibiotics. Things like prescription drugs being essentially purposefully laced with poison (acetaminophen) to prevent people from "abusing" them and other drugs like cannabis being illegal is utterly ridiculous.

If we don't own our own bodies, what do we get to own?

> Sure, there's the risk of antibiotic resistant bacteria developing, but the U.S. isn't going to stop that from happening no matter how difficult they make it for people to buy and use the drugs they need.

"But they're doing it!" is not an argument as to why we should contribute to the problem.

> I'm starting to lose patience with people trying to take away the right of other people to control their own body.

Except this "right" for people to control their body is also being taken away by the people making the tools we have to control our bodies useless.

The idea that you have in general the right to do whatever you want to yourself also comes with the present reality is that the rest of us have to pay up when you do something stupid.

An aside: I reject your premises entirely in the first place. There is no such thing as a "right." There are no rights given by God, nature did not instill you with any such rights, they are not inscribed on your soul. They are convenient legal fictions invented for contemporary norms that probably, in general and in the long-term, lead to happier societies. And if people putting whatever they want into their bodies causes or will cause immense suffering and unhappiness for other people in the future (the reduced effectiveness of antibiotics), then it is ridiculous and perhaps even selfishly evil to maintain even the pretense of your legal fiction.

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