Reverend Zeus

If you believe in self-ownership i.e. that you "own" or control yourself and are thus responsible for your actions, then the same must be true of each other person. You have no right to force them to do anything and they have no right to force you to do something. Also, neither they nor you have the right to stop someone from doing something so long as what they are doing doesn't harm another. In the case of whether someone should be "allowed" to harm themselves (which you clarified as the government being the allower), the question is flawed in that government has no right to allow or disallow you anything... you were created with certain inalienable rights. If you own yourself and are responsible for your own actions, the government has no claim to your life, property or the result of your toil. And unless a person commits violence, fraud or theft, the government should have no other involvement in their lives. The point being that people are free to do what they will so long as what they do doesn't harm anyone else. The caveat of this freedom is that they must be responsible for what they do and accept the consequences of their actions. If someone wishes to harm themselves, they have that right but not the right to harm others. A lot of people talk about a woman's "right to choose". I believe a woman's right to choose is the same as a man's right to choose. The choice, however, is not whether killing a fetus is or is not murder but rather whether or not to keep it in your pants or not keep it in your pants. If you choose not to, you must accept the consequences... be it a venereal disease or a baby you may not want. The right thing to do in that case is have the child and give it up for adoption. That is the price one must pay if they choose to have sex. Millions of people make that choice every day but few are prepared to accept the responsibility of their actions. Now you might say "What about rape?" and I would say that the violence of one person does not give another person the right to commit violence on a yet another person. Yes, a rapist should be punished and not just prison but also paying restitution to support any children their violence creates. Yes, the victim did not ask to have a child nor is it fair that they should give birth but it is the responsible thing to do. To have the child and give it up for adoption. The child may be a product of his/her father's sins but that makes the child no less innocent of it's father's crimes. That's my two cents and you are free to disagree.