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March 30, 2006
The Health Police
The other day I ran into a column by Walter Williams in the Durham Herald Sun that attacked the agenda of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Today I found the piece here. While I must admit to not being wholly familiar with the work of the Center, the spirit of his argument is one that has occurred to me as well: that behind a great deal of public health advocacy lies a well-meaning but nonetheless dangerous challenge to our civil liberties. I have often encountered instances of vigorous advocacy for public health policy proposals of dubious merit in terms of the main bedrock on which such proposals should rest (ie externalities) but which do effectively represent a challenge to personal freedom. A classic example would be proposals for bans on outdoor smoking. When they are motivated by medical concerns regarding secondary smoke, the evidence base for a comparatively (ie compared to many other behavioral externalities) serious externality is very slim. When motivated by fears of a demonstration effect (as in, what will the children think?), they represent an unconscionable attempt to undermine our civil liberties. Follow the logic of the latter justification to its conclusion and we will be living in a hellish society with no personal freedoms.
That concludes our rant for today.
Posted by dag at March 30, 2006 12:12 PM