"Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which injures no one else." -Declaration of Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
This statement would indicate that it is perfectly acceptable to do anything to injure yourself so long as you injure no one else in the process. But I wonder, is this possible? When we cause injury do we ever injure ourselves alone?
Let's look at a hypothetical situation... Let's say there's a man who just lost his job, financial security, and family. He is sick of living and so he decides to end his life. He jumps from an overpass on a busy road, is hit by a car, and dies. While tragic, this incident is perfectly ok though, after all, he had the liberty to injure himself. His jumping from the overpass didn't injure anyone else anyway, right? Wrong. What about the woman driving the car that hit him? What about the child who now has nightmares every night after witnessing the incident? The man may not have caused them physical injury but I would say he caused them great mental and emotional trauma and injury.
I wonder if there is ANY situation where we are really only hurting ourselves. I'm having trouble coming up with one, but my thoughts aren't fully developed on this topic so I'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback!
(I commented on Kyle's post.)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I don't think there is a situation where a person can hurt themselves and no one else, no matter how indirect the injury is. Everything we do will affect the world in some way.
ReplyDeleteWhat you are saying is very true, I don't think there is a situation where a person can truly only hurt themselves. But, if this is the case, how should that have sentance have read? what exactly is liberty then, if not the freedom to do anything that might not injure others?
ReplyDelete