Skip to main content

ask a question

recent responses

all topics

info

  • About this Site
  • Feeds
  • Publications
  • Panelists
  • Panelist Login

⚲

Law

I found the following statement on a website, along with many other radical philosophies, and just wondered what the panel thought of it. "The state (society) shouldn't outlaw activities like drug use/sale, prostitution, pornography, gambling, euthanasia, and abortion (the traditional "victimless crimes") -- or indeed even old-skool duelling, killer game shows, and consensual cannibalism. No matter how stupid, dangerous, "shocking", or "perverted", as long as it doesn't actually harm anyone against his will, it shouldn't be illegal, period. One has every (moral) right to ignore any law that violates the above-mentioned principle (at one's own risk, of course). Or, in the words of St. Thomas Aquinas: "Lex malla, lex nulla"; a bad law is no law."

Douglas Burnham
October 3, 2006 (changed October 3, 2006) Permalink
By way of a partial answer: the phrase 'against his will' in the quotation places the moral stress on the notion of 'informed consent'. But such consent is not an uncontroversial concept. It may that 'the state' has a duty of care with respect to those whose -- or in those situations where -- consent is not or could not be 'informed'. Please see my answer to a previous question for a bit more on this: http://www.amherst.edu/askphilosophers/question/1157
  • Log in to post comments
  • Read more about I found the following statement on a website, along with many other radical
  • 2 comments
  • Log in to post comments