Your doctor tells you what you really should do - lose weight, eat healthily, exercise. You agree to his/her face and then ignore the advice, don’t you?
Imagine how frustrated that leaves your primary care physician when it happens day after day with patient after patient. Now imagine that your doctors, or doctors with that same frustrating experience, work for the Federal Government and have considerable influence over national policy.
Can you see how their frustration might motivate them to favor heavy handed policies that infringe your civil rights in an attempt to force you to live a life “healthier” than the one you choose? After all, they are doing it for your own good. They really do know more about how you should live than you do.
Is the fact you don’t want to follow their good advice even relevant? If you believe in civil rights and personal autonomy, as I do, our desires do matter. Their expertise entitles them to give us advice. When advice becomes government mandate, they have crossed an ethical line.
