lederhosen

Questionable Advertising Slogan #68, seen yesterday while doing so: "It only takes a small prick to donate blood."

(Slogan due to the Australian Medical Students' Association.)

And, ganked from

ambitious_wench, the "What is your stand on..." meme.

A lot of these issues serve as reminder that "Is X a good thing?", "Should the law permit X?", and "Do you like X?" are three very different questions. An inevitable result of freedom is that people will make bad decisions; an inevitable result of laws is that people will have bad decisions made for them. Of the two I prefer the former, but neither extreme is good. Striking a reasonable balance between the two means accepting that sometimes we must allow people to do bad things, and sometimes we must forbid them from doing good things.

For instance, I abhor our current government here, and I'd be happy to see the Liberal Party lose their support and evaporate. But preventing people from voting Liberal would be a greater evil. On the other side of the coin, I believe it's possible for a psychiatrist to have a positive sexual relationship with a client - but in the greater scheme of things, permitting such relationships does more harm than good.

And on the personal level, I might be quite happy for somebody else to enjoy something without wanting it myself. Or, of course, I might disapprove of everybody else doing it and still enjoy it myself - which is only hypocritical if I *act* on that.

Abortion?:

That's an essay question for me, since it comes down to my rather complicated notions of 'personhood', which don't really match any of the common positions. Short version: should be legal, whether it's moral varies:

- I do not believe abortion is morally equivalent to killing an adult.
- I do see it as a negative act (the degree of which varies with state of development and other factors), and one that needs justification.
- As the person most familiar with the situation, it should be the mother's right to decide whether abortion is justified. Not because the mother can be guaranteed to make the right decision, but because (on average) I don't think anybody else's chances are significantly better.
- Informed decisions are a good thing. Anybody considering abortion should have access to reliable information about the issues involved, both pro- and anti-.

Death Penalty?: Anti- on all counts. Firstly because the legal system is too fallible, and the execution of an innocent man can never be remedied; secondly because it's a false solution.

Prostitution?: Pretty much as NSW did in response to the HIV crisis: legalise and regulate (barriers & testing included). Then come down hard on the illegal brothels - legalisation isn't a cure-all, but IMHO it's a help. Consenting adults should be able to make their own mistakes; if people are being forced into prostitution by economic circumstances, then we need to look at that underlying cause.

Alcohol, marijuana, other (psychoactive) drugs?: Should be legal for adults, subject to usual caveats about endangering others; those who decide to use them, knowing how it's likely to affect them, should be held just as responsible for what they do under the influence as they are when sober. Morally, OK in moderation but (like most things) harmful when taken to excess.

Personally: alcohol in small doses. I'll drink alcoholic drinks if they taste nice, but self-intoxication doesn't appeal to me. Even mild intoxication, which is as far as I've ever been, makes me feel uncomfortable and nervous. Other drugs, not at all.

Gay marriage?: Legally, I'd rather the state got out of the marriage business altogether and left it to individuals to decide whose relationships they will and won't acknowledge. Failing that, same-sex relationships should have the same options as opposite-sex ones.

Illegal immigrants?: More sinned against than sinning, in Australia at least. Not in favour of throwing borders wide open, but am much more not in favour of locking people up in detention camps for years. Especially where children are concerned. Would also prefer that relevant laws be applied *consistently*, as opposed to the current situation where more fuss is made about a handful of Middle-Easterners & other swarthy foreigners than over the thousands of British and other first-world visitors who overstay their visas.

Smoking?: Legally, I support the right of adults to make an informed decision to kill themselves in a manner of their choosing as long as the smoke doesn't impinge on my personal space. Cigarette companies who wilfully misled people about the risks deserve to be sued into bankruptcy, although people who take up smoking now have far less excuse for ignorance. And as long as the public health system is shouldering the medical costs of this habit, slug the companies for it accordingly (same goes for alcohol).

At the personal level, it distresses me greatly to see people harming themselves as badly as cigarettes do, even if by their own choice.

Drunk driving?: Same as any other activity that imperils the lives of nonconsenting bystanders.

Cloning?: Should be allowed, but I think we could well afford to spend slightly less of our time and money on future-tech solutions to glamorous problems and more on the boring stuff. (If we took all the money currently going into IVF programs and spent it on prevention for things like chlamydia instead, there'd be far fewer childless couples out there.)

Racism?: Bah. But am not entirely free of it myself.

I don't as such react badly to people on the basis of race, but when I meet somebody from a non-Anglo background, I do tend to assume (until I see otherwise) that they're going to conform to the norm for that group - straight, conservative, etc etc - and so I tend to be more cautious in discussing controversial topics than I would with another Anglo. It usually doesn't take much to correct me of this assumption (indeed, I've gone through that with quite a few of my LJ friends already) but it is how I usually start out.

Premarital sex?: Legally - yes, with AOC laws. Morally & personally: often a very healthy thing, and a valuable way for people to express love for one another. (I'm not using the narrow "one true love of your life" meaning there, BTW.) Like a good sharp kitchen knife: a wonderful thing to have, dangerous if handled carelessly, and shameful if its power is blunted by taking it for granted.

So it comes down to a personal judgement, which should be a very well-considered one - and re-evaluated every so often. I'm not as fussed with whether people do or don't have sex before marriage, as with whether they know why they're making that choice, and have some idea of the implications.

Religion?: Legally - support freedom of religion, but do not believe government should be involved in endorsing/promoting one religion over another.

Personally - I don't follow a specific religion, but I find them fascinating. Even 'false religions' (whichever those might be) often contain a great deal of wisdom; blindly rejecting everything that comes from religion is as foolish as blindly accepting it.

On the whole, I think religions do a lot of good and a lot of bad (although both are prone to exaggeration - all too often religion is dressed up as the reason for actions that aren't actually based in religion at all.) The exact balance, I can't tell.

The war in Iraq?: Illegal, immoral, and making the world a more dangerous place for all of us.

Bush?: Impeach the SOB already.

Downloading music?: OK if you're supporting the industry that creates that music. Some downloading is OK, but if you're getting a lot of pleasure out of people's work and doing nothing to return the favour then something's wrong.

My personal rule-of-thumb is "if you want to listen to it more than a couple of times, buy a copy".

The legal drinking age?: Around 18. But whatever the age, we need to teach people how to handle it responsibly.

Incidentally, the legal drinking age should not be higher than the age at which one can be tried as an adult, drafted into the army, or other such liabilities of adulthood.

Porn?: Legally - should be available to adults, except where its creation entails acts that are in themselves illegal.

Morally & personally - I think about 95% of the stuff out there is undesirable, in that it suborns sex to the cause of making a fast buck, and so cheapens what should be a treasured gift.

The other 5% is the stuff that actually celebrates sex, remembering that it's something that should be beautiful in its own right. It's the difference between "doing this because it makes money", and "making money doing what I love".

Suicide?: Legally - not much point in outlawing. Morally - occasionally an acceptable choice (e.g. painful terminal illness), more often a bad decision.