Needed someone to reply to that posting first since I wasn't sure what it
was doing near any health related information net!?! This concept of
individual freedom has assumed epic proportions surfing the wonderful
tides of capitalism and the free market. Needless to say, we have all
witnessed the effects of bottom-line policies, slash some jobs and your
stock will rise.

We live in a society and that means individual freedoms also compete with
collective well-being. I lament to think that my tax dollars are going to
support the health care of someone who succumbed to advertising and peer
pressure and started smoking (lets face it, smoking isn't an immediately
enjoyable thing to do).

In any case, it is good to see (in some strange way) that the forum is
open enough to welcome all sides of an issue, even if it we don't
necessarily agree with it.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alan Chan

Department of Psychology
University of Toronto

E-Mail: [log in to unmask]
Laboratory: (416)-978-1754

On Wed, 18 Feb 1998, John Richmond wrote:

> Smokers' rights?  Is this some kind of sick joke?  How about the right to
> run people over at cross walks or the right to let your furnace blow up
> and kill half your block?  Long live the freedom to be an idiot and hurt
> other people in the process.  I'm sure that is what my relatives died
> fighting for in WW II.
>
> - A (needless to say) non-smoker
>