To what degree would you say personal risk ought to be legally permitted? I would say, without any exception that has yet occurred to me, the government has no business preventing citizens from taking risks, providing that two conditions are met: the risk is only to the individual, and that it isn't in a coercive situation (aka, an employer having an unsafe workplace. Yes, the employees accept the risk, but they aren't in much of a position to refuse). However, there's nothing wrong with making an effort to make people aware of the risks they're taking. This question occurs to me because of a quarry near where I live, which people swim in, despite the fact that it's illegal for safety reasons. But it could also apply to drugs, extreme sports, seat belts, and all sorts of things.
The US holds mostly everyone else accountable except for idiots who do dumb stuff on others properties. A thief tried to break into a building through a chimney and tried to sue a homeowner for getting stuck. Or that dumb bitch who held McDonald's scalding hot coffee in her lap and when she jammed on the brakes it spilled in her lap and burned her. It's also why American places won't let you cook your own food at like a hibachi restaurant. Yes drugs should be legalized. At least marijuana. Alcohol causes more deaths through accidents and diseases related to it than many other drugs yet it is entirely legal.
I'm fine with allowing risky behaviour (with the listed exceptions). Although there are costs to the society. Drinking lots of alcohol will cause higher medical costs. So a good procedure would be, extra taxes on risky behaviour and enablers of risky behaviour which causes increased costs to the nation. So an extra cost-to-the-society-tax for alcohol and cigarette producers and a consumer tax on both products. Not sure what to do about seat belts and extreme sports and such in this case, harder to tax those.
Sometimes those laws are not for protecting the one you think it is protecting. Probably that swimming law is there to protect your government from law suits not the other way around. So I am with Kasey on this one...
No it doesn't. If you ask me it makes it more sinister, evil... life works like that unfortunately. When we started our military service first thing they did was putting a little booklet in our hands and order us to read it. It was very very long list of laws, most of them was... very very silly like; - Don't point our gun to yourself. - If you do that don't pull the trigger. Do you think those are real warnings or just put there to have rights to say "We told you so". Rich and powerful knows how to protect themselves.
The argument I've heard is that countries with public health care do have a say in what you do to yourself, because they're the ones paying to fix you up afterward. It makes sense in a cursory look, but ultimately, you cannot enforce what people do to themselves if they really want to do it. You can make suggestions, put out PSAs, and create resources for people caught in self-destructive tendencies to help themselves (what I wish we'd do for drugs) but making it illegal is stupid and tyrannical, forcing those actions underground and stigmatizing them. Acts which have no chance of harming others on their own are usually fine by me.
