Your body, your rules.

More specifically, do you have the right to criticise someone else for what they put into their body, such as alcohol, tobacco or other drugs? Or what about unhealthy eating habits? The standard argument is that it's their body and they can do what they like, but what about how these choices can impact family, friends and colleagues? Does society/the law have the right to regulate and control what you put into your own body?

Discuss my questions and anything related.

This is a hard question,

While yes, I believe critiquing a person's habits and what they do is fine and can be very constructive when done well, at the same time I don't believe regulation is a proper means. I mean, there's a lot out there that is done by peeps (a bunch of it unhealthy) but I just can't regulate the ones that are since this is a matter of personal choice and in these topics you have to pretty careful with the handling. Considering we live now in a world where peeps can make any choices they want that don't infringe upon others, I doubt any form of (regulation on someone's choices) would go well, just look at how things are getting legalized as well as the whole alcohol banning back then in America.

Course, I do thing it's important to be informant about it. I can say that something is bad and bring up good arguments, cause if it's unhealthy then I shouldn't be obliged to pretend it's something it's not. While I can't force them to do things that are healthy, I can point out when something is unhealthy.

But as I said before, this is a hard question. I doubt my comment overall covers it in detail or addresses any "excpetions" for self harm or possible disorders as a result of habit or addiction. Though I can say that a person is responsible for their own body and while I can care about it in the end it's their decision.

As long as they aren't posing a threat to others indirectly, there doesn't need to be strict regulation, I'd say. For example, a person can drink as much as they want but not allowed to drive under the influence. Similarly, one should also not be allowed to influence minors to take up drinking, on the basis that it is harmful to the body and pressuring a kid to get drunk is therefore indirect harm.

Moving away from regulation, obviously we should reprimand and condemn a family member or a friend from harming themselves. I don't think anyone would claim that people should sit by and watch people they love do harmful things to themselves without trying to inetervene. Inaction can often be evil as well.

This is a grey area. There shouldn't be regulations on consuming drugs, autorities should not have the power to say what someone can and can't put in their body, of what they please with their body (sex is an example). But at the same time, there are people that are reckless and could potentially harm themselves or others under the influence. Then there's the possibility of hurting your family through drug addiction, even as far as stealing from your own family for a fix. But should they be criticized or is it our position to criticize? Short answer is no. Humans, we have a habit of judging others. We're constantly being judged or doing the judging, everyone on this planet is both. So without thinking about it lots of humans will criticize someone based on their drug use or whatever the case.
I also feel it's not criticizing a friend or family member if you're trying to get them the proper help they need. Not all drug addicts actually want to be drug addicts, or their actions are out of their control. These heavy narcotics take your soul and change you, you'll get so astray from your spiritual self that you can't find yourself and when they finally start finding theirselves the withdraws are so intense for some that they'd rather die from an overdose or continue using than live through the hell of withdraws. It's not easy to get off heroin, xanax, crack, etc even alcohol takes a huge toll.
Drugs like marijuana? Who gives a shit? Honestly. People on edge that are drug free, should chill out and smoke some weed, it also helps tremendously with recovering addicts. Reduces sicknessand increases their appetite. Sure it doesn't give them the escape they're looking for of course, but it helps some get through addictions. Also, marijuana IS NOT a gateway drug.

Bodily Autonomy is kind of a basic human right. Except when it isn't. It isn't a right when any of the following are true; 1) The person is unconscious, mentally unstable or otherwise medically unfit or unable to specify preferences. 2) When the thing they do with their body harms another person, such as smoking (secondhand smoke) or incurs a significant risk of harming another body such as having any contact with another with intent to transmit a communicable disease. 3) When the thing they want to do with their body is significantly likely to cause their own death in the short term.

The state can ban smoking, and drinking; as long as it's banned because of some other reasonable reasons too

eh, smoking can affect people who aren't actually trying to smoke. Alchohol, and sometimes drugs aren't that bad imo... Really depends on how many people it affects.

The answer to this question is a very short and resounding yes. Yes, you can be told what you can and cannot do in terms of controlled substances, prescription drugs, alcohol or other imbibed items that impair.

There are laws stating as such, against drinking and driving, operating a motor vehicle under the influence, driving while impaired or under the influence of drugs or other such substances. . .

If you sit at home and drink, fine, but so long as you stray into areas owned by the public you are submitting yourself to public law, so don't go whipping out your genitals because you had one too many and expect to walk away unscathed.

You are subject to the same laws as everyone else and if you cannot handle yourself in public then stay at home behind closed doors where yoh can do what you want when you want. Your home, your Castle.

You can be criticised for eating fast food or smoking. You can be made fun of. People will always judge you so don't expect the royal treatment. There will always be people critiquing you and this isn't anything new.

I myself have critisized people that are obese and buying more food to assist their weightgain. Whether or not you announce it publicly is another thing as well. You're free to do whatever so long as you're prepared for consequences.

Yes and no.

Free speech laws and rights allow you to legally criticize. However, you shouldn't do that to everyday people because they either already know what they're doing is harming themselves or they don't care and your criticism is only going to make them more stubborn and resistant to change. Either way, you're not helping.

On the other hand, as a society we should encourage and incentivize good and healthy behavior. We should be making things that are good for you more available and more affordable (e.g., government subsidizing fruit and vegetable growers so they can be sold at cheap prices). At the same time things that are unquestionably bad for your health should be expensive or otherwise difficult to get by making them difficult to sell through various restrictions on when, where, etc., they can be obtained or used.

My reasoning for the restrictions make sense even if you believe very strongly in personal freedoms and a no-government, no-regulation world. The spoken or unspoken agreement of living in a society of rules and laws is that there are going to be some imposed limits on your activities for the greater good. Legally, you have to have a license to drive, can't drive while intoxicated, etc. As part of the above understanding, it's near universally considered okay to interfere in someone's life if they are causing harm to others (because it serves the greater good). Almost to the same degree (some people make a distinction) if they're causing harm to themselves. What is considered too harmful, harmful enough to warrant intervention, is debatable, but the general idea is, I think, undisputed. Now, you may think that self-harm is a personal choice, but since in most places in the world the society/government is responsible for providing health care in one way or another. An unhealthy person anywhere means the society at large uses time/resources to treat them. If we had unlimited resources things might be different, but we don't. When it's for something that could be avoided (binge drinkers needing their stomachs pumped, etc.) we as the society are paying for their recovery when we could be paying less for the prevention instead and using our resources for something else. So we, as a society, have reasons to cross someone's body autonomy line depending on the circumstances.

I think the only real question (unless you're one of those people who think it's okay to let someone die when you have the means to save them) is how strongly you want to enforce things. Outright banning personal choices that are harmful to health doesn't work (for the reason at the top of this post) but providing people with information about what their choices' consequences are (i.e., educating) and making alternatives available is a really good idea.

Basically, you make the healthy choice the easier choice and more people will choose it.

As far as drugs or alcahol go dude fuck, always call your friends out. This isn't even a question. If you're worried about your pal, talk to them, because once they get beyond a certain point, it's impossible. Leto got a person make their own choices is important, but the drugs that young people got now and isn't the same as it was back in the day. Ugh. These kids are young and this stuff is dirty.

Lucid said:

If you're worried about your pal, talk to them, because once they get beyond a certain point, it's impossible. Leto got a person make their own choices is important, but the drugs that young people got now and isn't the same as it was back in the day. Ugh. These kids are young and this stuff is dirty.

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Nothing is ever impossible when it comes to drug addiction, but it's extremely difficult yes. They get to a certain point where they can't cope without the drugs and by this time the drugs already taken control. Rehab has proven in many cases to not work, and neither does incarceration. Rehab, they make you feel like "you're the problem" and it makes them want to use more. Incarceration.. Let's just not discuss how asinie that tactic is, it simply doesn't work.

ShinyUmbreon189 said:

Nothing is ever impossible when it comes to drug addiction, but it's extremely difficult yes. They get to a certain point where they can't cope without the drugs and by this time the drugs already taken control. Rehab has proven in many cases to not work, and neither does incarceration. Rehab, they make you feel like "you're the problem" and it makes them want to use more. Incarceration.. Let's just not discuss how asinie that tactic is, it simply doesn't work.

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Oh I'm not trying to discount it. 100% of the time it's going to come down go if that person is ready to quit. If they aren't you're just flushing money down the drain. My point is, you care about a person, right? They're making life choices that are going to harm them. But in the end, you have to decide if you're going to be that supports system or not. So long as you're not the enabler. Either way, it's not easy. But recovery is a physical and psychological thing. Especially if a person is dependent. You have your mind telling you your uncomfortable without a drug and your body punishing you. And it doesn't go away. It's a miserable state. My biggest beef with the network we've set up with these things that it has to do with shame/guilt rather then education and recovery, but that leads down its own rabbit hole

Lucid said:

Oh I'm not trying to discount it. 100% of the time it's going to come down go if that person is ready to quit. If they aren't you're just flushing money down the drain. My point is, you care about a person, right? They're making life choices that are going to harm them. But in the end, you have to decide if you're going to be that supports system or not. So long as you're not the enabler. Either way, it's not easy. But recovery is a physical and psychological thing. Especially if a person is dependent. You have your mind telling you your uncomfortable without a drug and your body punishing you. And it doesn't go away. It's a miserable state. My biggest beef with the network we've set up with these things that it has to do with shame/guilt rather then education and recovery, but that leads down its own rabbit hole

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This isn't always the case. There are a bunch of drug addicts that really want to quit but they can't either due to the withdraws and dependency or because of who they associate themselves with. If you're a drug addict, chances are you have friends that are drug addicts as well and this makes it extremely more difficult for them to quit. You're who you associate yourself with. Seeking better role models and influences in their circle COULD help, but when you're so doped out you don't know what you're doing. Some cause a state of delerium and you don't know what's going on, where you're at, or who you are. You lose touch with reality and do things you'd never do sober just to get a fix. Thankfully I'm just a stoner lol. Instead of making them feel guilty and charging them for services that don't generally help, or better yet charge them in court with possible incarceration.. They should get down to what caused them to start using, without making them feel like it's their fault. Rehab doesn't work cause these councelers don't care enough, they think they're better than these addicts and only want a paycheck.

ShinyUmbreon189 said:

This isn't always the case. There are a bunch of drug addicts that really want to quit but they can't either due to the withdraws and dependency or because of who they associate themselves with. If you're a drug addict, chances are you have friends that are drug addicts as well and this makes it extremely more difficult for them to quit. You're who you associate yourself with. Seeking better role models and influences in their circle COULD help, but when you're so doped out you don't know what you're doing. Some cause a state of delerium and you don't know what's going on, where you're at, or who you are. You lose touch with reality and do things you'd never do sober just to get a fix. Thankfully I'm just a stoner lol. Instead of making them feel guilty and charging them for services that don't generally help, or better yet charge them in court with possible incarceration.. They should get down to what caused them to start using, without making them feel like it's their fault. Rehab doesn't work cause these councelers don't care enough, they think they're better than these addicts and only want a paycheck.

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I mean shrug/ yeah I agree. Education for adults is crap. No one wants to deal with them and they don't want to be treated like subhuman. Like where I live, if you OD, the hospital who treated you automatically commits you. So here you have a bunch of people who don't want to quit in a place they don't want to be in with a bunch of people who are running the program are stuck with dealing with addicts who are willing to do and say whatever in order to be released sooner and go run out and their next fix, they're just done 99% of the time. And then when you are discharged, you have to take a series of classes that prevent you from working a daytime job, so you're kind of screwed unless someone is supporting you. Its an ugly cycle. It's a very broken system. Addiction should be treated more as a mental illness then it is a personal weakness. Asking a heroin addict to stop using is like asking someone with chronic depression to get happy. Getting down to the root of things doesn't always fix anything by the point that someone is addicted, because by then they've felt an alleviation that they can't ever feel again without drug usage and when you're in a low place, that's tempting. Bottom line is the system doesn't want them.

There are a lot of choices someone can make that may end up hurting those around them, but they are still allowed to make those choices. Just sticking to what someone puts in their own body, if there's a high probability that the drug will cause them to harm those around them in some way, then that substance should be banned. If there's a relatively low probability that it will cause them to harm those around them, then it probably shouldn't be banned.

Maybe the ideal setup would be to have some kind of situation that greatly lowers or even removes this possibility of harming anyone from it, so people can choose to make that choice in a safer environment?

I believe that people can do whatever they want. I think its rather self righteous to criticize people based on habits that have no affect on you.

Kanon said:

I believe that people can do whatever they want. I think its rather self righteous to criticize people based on habits that have no affect on you.

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Criticizing with the intent to help a person isn't a self righteous motive. Unless the person just wants to point out flaws in someone else, but even then that still can benefit said person. Regardless of the intent, what matters are the results, which can be good and/or negative.

Peeps can do whatever they want, but there needs to be an understanding that if you are doing something that outright hurts yourself or others then yeah you should be called out on it. I mean, you can't force the person, but then you can at least point something out.

Also, affect can be a many thing and I highly doubt anybody unaffected/invested would care to call someone out on their harmful habits, or if they did it wouldn't be for the purpose of improving. Peeps are flawed and pointing it out and wanting to help isn't a detraction for the overall intent of trying to help the person if they do want to change.

Personally, I'd rather be told straight up where I need to improve instead of everyone saying I'm fine in my flaws. I wanna better myself and peeps should want that for themselves too. Now I know I can't speak for the entire class, but a lack of self awareness/discipline is a good way for a person to take a fall.

Again, you shouldn't force someone unless they honestly are about to hurt someone/severely injure themselves, in which case you step into "safety" territory, but I honestly disagree cause even good criticism can come from a less than well meaning person. It's how peeps handle that criticism to either better themselves, not better themselves or assess if this is a proper thing to do in order to better themselves.

This is more of a two way street, if the person in question is a friend or family member then you can tactfully tell them to clean up there act because it is not healthy.

There is no politeness in tell a stranger off, you will be looked down on/yelled at/attacked

On an individual level, yes you do have the right to do whatever you want with your body - the issue is when it can directly / indirecly affect other people around you negatively.

Govenments - and therefore society, encourage people to adopt healthy lifestyles becuase obviously that means people are fit enough to work. More people able to work (legally) - more people contributing to the country's enconomy.

Is this about criticizing or regulating? Criticizing, obviously yes, as the other person doesn't even require knowing what you think about it. Doesn't make it less of a critique.

Now regulating on the other hand is a completely different story. It pretty much boils down to self defense. Example: a certain drug turns people violent when consumed. In this case obviously it's important for the government to put in some regulations, as an act of violence obviously damages the society it governs, aka itself.