From: Martin
Yes Mirah, That's true. And if the "State" physically restrains and imprisons
the "suicidal" person they have succeeded in killing that person existentially.

Szasz, of course, is committed to the philosophy of personal responsibilty - if
a person drives while under the influence of alcohol (or what ever partaken
chemical that causes either loss of judgement or physical abilities), that
person is responsible for the consequences of their behavior. Unfortunately,
the governments would have never enacted the strict drunk driving laws had it
not been for Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). The (illegal and some legal)
drug user is very much in the same position the homosexual was in prior to 1973
: ie homosexuality was both a disease and a crime. Until just a few years ago
it was still a crime.

Getting to current events, since I'm talking about drugs, the case of Barry
Bonds. It's truly unfortunate that the meddling US government had to get
involved in the use of steroids in the "national sport" baseball. So Bonds
allegedly lied about his steroid use under oath and now faces felony perjury
indictment. In my opinion, Bonds' use of steroids should not have been any
more interest to the government that if he had used an illegal bat. That would
have been the concern of the Baseball Commision - and his penalty under their
control. The worst that should happen to Mr. Bonds would be getting kicked out
of baseball not potentially 30 years in prison.


To: thomasszaszdiscussion@...: mirah@...: Fri, 16 Nov
2007 16:26:53 +0100Subject: Re: [ThomasSzaszDiscussion] Comprehensive listing
for history




D Waters wrote:> Would I let him or her die?You are not capable of preventing
suicide, so you cannot "let him or her die".M.






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