The freedom of choice. That was why our forefathers fought in the American Revolution, not to be worried over an overbearing government that gave them no rights. Resulting from this mistreatment, they created the Constitution to ensure that every citizen had their rights. In order for everyone to have equal rights, laws were created. My history teacher always said “My rights stop where yours begin”. In this sense we have a right to make our own decisions on our own safety. What right does the government have to make my decisions for me? With the enormous amount of laws created that limit a person’s freedom even though it does not conflict or hurt anyone else, the government has stepped past its boundaries. These laws include seat belt laws and alcohol laws. For all the support for these laws, they only provide evidence on the harm that can be caused from it. However, these are “public safety” laws and what someone decides to do with his/her body is not for the government to decide. While I can agree that seat belts can be a good safety precaution, there have also been cases where not wearing a seat belt has saved their lives. The government should not inject themselves into making decisions for its citizens. …show more content…
City of Lago Vista, the court agreed that taking Ms. Atwater to jail for not wearing a seatbelt was not a warrantless arrest. Even though Ms. Atwater had children with her and she went to jail for what should have been just a fine. She was pulled over just because the police officer noticed she and her children were not wearing seatbelts. This case parallels to our right to deny medical service, we have a right and freedom to decide what to do with our bodies. The seat belt laws claim to be for our safety, but is the government allowed to meddle in my personal
The Founding Fathers deemed the rights of the individual to be of utmost importance and enumerated specific protections of them in the Bill of Rights. Works Cited The "General Will." Wikipedia. The World of the. Wikimedia Foundation, 20 Dec. 2013.
there are certain rights we do not have, so that our lives are kept safe. The
the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms,
...f such a decision, the government has aright to step in and help the person. This is because at this understanding of the situation, the person is not capable of making a decision that he would likely consent to at after fully understanding the situation. As in the seat belt case, often times, a person does not fully understand that not wearing a seat belt contradicts his true desires and that no possible good or benefit can come from not wearing it. However, when a person is making a rational decision between two things that he values, he is the only person that can decide which is best for him. An important condition to remember in this conclusion is that all of this is assuming that no other individuals are being harmed or put at risk by the actions of these people. Under this condition I have come to the conclusion that there do exist certain circumstances where the government has a right to legal paternalism. These circumstances include times when an individual is unable to make a rational and logical decision for himself either because he does not fully understand the issue or because he is unable to logically assign value to specific possible consequences of a decision.
liberties, the right to choose who will represent us to the rest of the world, and the freedom to
the rights of the citizens of the United States. Following these Amendments can afford our
Mandating Seat Belt Usage vs. Freedom of Choice SOC120: Introduction to Ethics and Social Responsibilities 1 How do you feel when you are told what you will or will not do? You may be told that it is for your own good, but who has the right to decide what is or is not good for you? After all who knows you better than you do? This brings me to the topic of my discussion.
This woman’s story may not be one that will ever happen to many people, but if it did a seatbelt is one of the only defenses one has against it. A seatbelt is not a new development and seatbelt laws are not new either and refusing to wear a seatbelt is disregard for the law and one’s own safety. Everyone has to wear a seatbelt, no one is picked, and people from celebrities down to a common sixteen-year-old driver have to wear one. No one is exempt from the law and no one should be aloud to break it. It’s not hard to do and shouldn’t be hard to remember because all it takes is a click and even though some have come up with many reasons not to wear them the benefits of wearing a seatbelt outweigh the disadvantages by far.
Constitution needed to clearly outline what the government was not allowed to do. This restraint on government would not allow the possibility of an abuse of power from the government or any of its affiliates. The need for restrictions of the government was also learned from the abuses dealt by British control over Colonial America. With proper representation and laws in hand the Colonies where able to join and defeat the British, thus gaining independence. The very First Amendment provides freedom of religion, speech, and press to allow U.S. citizens to openly criticize any matter, political or not, and not be prosecuted for it. The freedom of defense with firearms allows the citizens to be on equal terms with any force against them is included in the Second Amendment. The protection of privacy of personal living space and belongings are protected by the Third and Fourth Amendments. Clearly the founders of the Constitution had the rights of the people at the forefront of their intentions, and not the potential power they could have gained for
This want was supplied to the American people in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. These two documents gave the American people everything they needed to set them apart from the rest. Based on the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, America was able to create an identity including freedom, religion, and individuality that is very unique to this country. Perhaps the most exclusive aspect of American freedom is stated directly in the Declaration of Independence. It states, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness" (Jefferson).
Car accidents are the leading cause of death for people under the age of 35. Wearing a seat belt can prevent death in about half of these accidents. Did you know that every 15 seconds someone is injured in an automobile accident if they are not buckled up, or that every 13 minutes someone is killed in a crash. Failure to wear a seat belt contributes to more fatalities than any other single traffic safety related behavior. According to the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration seatbelts saved nearly 12,000 lives in the United States in the year 2000. The NHTSA estimates that more than 9,000 U.S. car accident fatalities in 2000 would have been avoided if the victims had been wearing seatbelts. Sixty three percent of the people killed in accidents were not wearing seat belts. The NHTSA a...
Seatbelts have been around since the 1950s and have proven to save lives over the years. The teenage stigma is that they do not need to wear one because they will be fine. After thousands of accidents where the occupants did not wear their seatbelt, the Supreme Court decided to pass some laws. “In 1972, the agency requires dull passive restraints for front seat occupants” (Supreme Court). The agency that the Supreme Court is referring to is the Department of Transportation. This law is a staple in automobile safety and sets a level of precedents for future laws. After this law was passed, the amount of fatalities from traffic incident relating to seat belts usage had dropped. The Supreme Court did not stop there, they continued to add more laws. “...new motor vehicles produced after September 1982 will be equipped with passive restraints to protect the safety of the occupants of the vehicle in the event of a collision” (Supreme Court). Now all new motor vehicles must have a form of passive restraint added to their vehicles before they can sell them to the public. The government hoped to protect more lives of young drivers who did not insist on wearing seat belts by making them mandatory and being enforced by police officers. Since 1972, hundreds of thousands of teenage lives have been saved with this simple safety
Using seat belt when driving can help us to prevent death when an accident occurs.
The privacy of the individual is the most important right. Without privacy, the democratic system that we know would not exist. Privacy is one of the fundamental values on which our country was founded. There are exceptions to privacy rights that are created by the need for defense and security.
Although there are many unsafe things that people should not do while driving such as, texting, reckless driving, speeding, and driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol, however, they still do it because they think they will not cause an accident. No one ever expects to get into a car accident one day while they are driving minding their own business heading towards their destination and suddenly being hit by someone ending up with head and back injuries and a broken hip bone or even fatality. The use of a seat belt may not save you from bodily injuries but it certainly can keep your body in place preventing you from being ejected out of a vehicle that has come to a halt. I’d rather be held in a car during a car accident than to be thrown on the side of a road any