ext_234665 ([identity profile] firstfrost.livejournal.com) wrote in [personal profile] kirisutogomen 2011-09-28 07:28 pm (UTC)

But here, I think we're looking at the government trying very hard to make sure nobody accidentally or unthinkingly uses a teratogen while pregnant, which is a different sort of thing than trying to make sure that nobody uses a teratogen to intentionally maim their own fetus, which is what criminalization would be for.

I do accept that there are people with very poor decision-making abilities, and addiction probably plays a large role in that. And we do, at some points, take people's control of their own bodies away from them when they seem really likely to damage themselves. We don't lock up smokers for their own good, but we do commit people to psychiatric care when they start making obvious suicide attempts. So I accept that there's a line of "a danger to yourself and others" that can be crossed, where a deliberate danger to a future kid you plan to give birth to can count as "others", but it seems like it would be a pretty high bar, and also it would include a lot of non-pregnant people of both sexes.

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