As I loaded my car to leave campus today, I caught part of a conversation between two philosophy students about something that just isn't true as they prattle it. I have very little respect for the soft sciences because they deal in nuance and rhetoric more than in facts and measurements but are treated as far more practical, valid, and praiseworthy than my religion. We must be at that point in the semester where the students discuss their rights and freedoms without concern with or discussion of the concomitant responsibilities. These young people engage in many things no longer considered taboo that do not however help them do anything other than arrive at logical fallacies and rationalization. Yes it is your body, but no you may not do whatever the Sam Houston you want with it. Sometimes what you do affects others.
Far too many people abuse their bodies and then demand that other people carry the consequences. Most of my students are aspiring medical professionals who know they may end up caring for people who didn't care for themselves. If you, by virtue of negligence or abuse, put your body in a place where I am obligated with mine to take care of you, it's not your body to do with as you please any more. Who gives you the right to decide, because you shot heroin or contracted Hepatitus C in an orgy, that I ought to use my body to earn money to pay for your treatment? Isn't it also my right to use my body as I please if you claim that right for yourself? Yet, they will burden, by taxes or fiat or appeal to pity, other people to carry the consequences of their aberrant and abhorrent choices when their bodies become a prison instead of a portal.
One of the most obvious experiments among young people is with intimacy. Despite the fact that contraception has been around in the western world since at least before the Spanish Armada, too many young people regard pregnancy with the wanton disregard Philip paid Elizabeth and end up losing their floatilla in the channel. They tell us that we can't tell them that they ought not or look down on them if they do because it's their body. If your body can bring life into this world, and you do, it's no longer your body to do with as you please. Perhaps this is why so many people are fascinated with abortion, because the obligation of carrying, caring for, and focusing on someone else imposes on their desire to do whatever they like. Creating new life is not a privilege every human enjoys or one that every human deserves, and when you undertake activities that lead to that without regard for the innocent and completely helpless life you create, you are fit for scorn. I have at least 10 pregnant students this term, and only one of these was on purpose. That's not your body, and you can't just do whatever you like. What if your parents had done it to you?
If it's your body, then the consequences and responsibilities are yours too. You are the one who must occupy it and live with yourself 24/7, so if you're not willing to bear the consequences of your actions you have no right to do whatever it is you do with your body. Many people do beat the odds and smoke or do drugs or fornicate ad nauseum for decades without apparent consequences, but not every bodily harm is visible, and almost none of the damage to the soul is visible to the eye. Even Charlie Sheen's attitude couldn't keep him from staying positive. You hurt yourself when you make poor choices. You hurt other people who care about you, taught you, raised you, stuck out their necks for you, believe in you, pay money to send you to school or buy clothes or feed you. You hurt your job prospects and longevity and quality of life when you "eat, drink and act merry". You hurt your posterity if you smoke while pregnant, get pregnant out of wedlock, catch an STD, or die in a stupid stunt.
A close acquaintance of mine watched her life fall apart last year because of stupid decisions made by other people, and those people probably don't know or care. Her husband of 12 years cheated on her with at least one other woman, but probably more, giving her a terminal illness. Then, he left her and their two sons. Since he was the one with a job, she wasn't prepared to enter the workforce, and although she tried valiantly, she lost her home when she lost her jobs and in so doing lost much of her stuff. Her bosses were uncaring about her predicament, staffed her when she needed to be home, and burnt her out. She has no money, no car, no husband, few friends, and nowhere to turn. Then, in February of this year, her son died in a motorcycle accident. Two weeks ago, I helped her pack her stuff in a moving van and sent her off to Colorado to live with her grandmother. It's your body, yes, but what you do with it doesn't always stop with you. This man's decisions left a swathe of desolation, dejection, and destitution in their wake. Meanwhile he is off in the Caribbean hanging out with shallow women in a vain attempt to slake his lusts, and my acquaintance is trying to pick up the shattered pieces of her life and start over again at age 46. It's not your body. It's ours. We hurt when you hurt. We bleed when you bleed. We pay when you play. We are well only when you take care of yourself as best you can. Someone has to pay the piper.
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