4 ms·

Every time I see an article like this, it advances the "principle" that your own death has no effect on anybody else in the world. Never have I seen this justi

• mod 11y ago
  Perhaps so, but to say that seat belt laws are to protect the society from those who don't wear seat belts is equally unjustified. Not to mention they can, and do, find all kinds of other ways to kill themselves, both accidentally and intentionally--and almost none of those are regulated in a similar fashion.
  • njharman 11y ago
    There are innumerable and obvious societal impacts to your personal death/injury. From direct costs of EMS/Fire/medical care, to the minor economic disruption/traffic, to the esoteric person who kills themselves not wearing seat belt cut short their potential contribution to society.
    • mod 11y ago
      Right, my point was that I don't believe that's really the impetus for the law.
• derefr 11y ago
  If you assume otherwise, you get into all sorts of weird utilitarian edge-cases where your friends and family should be able to force you (or at least have a vote in) whether you're able to do things like eating candy or taking on a career in Fire & Rescue. It's not that that value is incoherent or anything—it's actually not a bad idea in isolation—it's just that we seem to value self-determination strictly more.