Saturday, September 17, 2011

A Beltarian Explains When a Vaccine Against Sex-Transmitted Disease Should Be Made Mandatory

That Koch-funded Institute for Humane Studies Anniversary event could get real interesting if the master of ceremonies, Beltarian Megan McArdle, starts expounding on some of her theories.

In a recent blog post, she has built a model to show when it would be okay to mandate for the general population a vaccine against sexually transmitted disease. In this vision, she has the U.S. going so sex crazy that, I'm guessing, she sees Catholic nuns leaving the convent to get in on orgies.

When all is said and done, 50% of the country has sexually transmitted diseases and, therefore, yes, in a Beltarian world, vaccines for sexually transmitted disease should be mandated.

Here's McArdle in her own words:

The government does not have a right to mandate vaccination for your own good. But it does have a right to do so when being unvaccinated is a physical threat to others who engage in normal behavior.

In our society, we have defined "having sex with someone who has ever had sex with another person" as a normal behavior--yes, even devout Catholics believe it is fine to marry a late convert, or a widower. When 50% of the population has had the disease in question, and it is transmitted by activities that we consider a normal part of life, it's within the realm of public health.
Yes, for a Beltarian, apparently liberty stops if 50% of the country has gone orgy crazy.

11 comments:

  1. I don't suppose there's any way to get thinking like McCardles defined as a contagious, contractable disease, is there? If so, I'm all for quarantining those infected somewhere far, far away to protect those who aren't.

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  2. Let's follow Ms. McArdle's logic:

    IF you engage in irresponsible sexual practices with regards to your health, THEN the government should protect you from your own irresponsibility by forcing people to get an STD vaccination.


    So, for example, if you decide to have sex with someone whose sexual history is either a mystery to you (because you haven't investigated it) or lacking in credibility (because you've chosen a sexual partner who is dishonest), then the government has the right to force you, your sex partner and everyone else to get a vaccine to make sure there are no poor consequences from this irresponsible decision you've made.

    If you refuse to get a vaccine, you may be deemed to be an imminent threat to other people and you may be imprisoned or murdered if you resist.

    This is justified because everyone has a right to sleep with anyone they want without having to do any due diligence or exercise any caution with regard to the health risk they may be assuming from this willfully chosen act.

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  3. Assume there is a deadly disease that starts to spread in populations in which less than 80% of the people are immune. Furthermore, assume there is a vaccination that when taken, makes you immune with a likelihood of 90%. The only way to be sure that you don't get the disease, is to live in an area in which almost everybody gets the vaccination. So you can either encourage/force your neighbours to also take the vaccination, or move away.

    What do you think is the most efficient and correct way to resolve this?

    The best solution I can think of would be to hold a direct-democratic vote about mandating the vaccination and then do it if a majority supports it.

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  4. @Anonymous 6:41

    McArdle is not arguing about a general disease that starts to spread in the population. She specifically references sexually transmitted diseases.

    She spins some doozies and then you spin where she has not gone. The two of you belong on a boat together.

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  5. Well said Taylor and Banacek!

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  6. I hope the anon at 641 is kidding, since even a casual parsing of his comment leads to totalitarian sexual laws...you know, the kind where they kill you if you don't do what they say. if he's serious...god help us all.

    When being sarcastic, please be explicit!

    Dale Fitz

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  7. Way cool, Larry.

    Also, I agree with Banacek.

    Do you suppose the next step of the bas...bullies is to outlaw sex without a permit?

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  8. @ Anonymous (September 17, 2011 6:41 PM)

    First of all, McArdle's example was about STDs, and nobody is holding a gun to anybody's head to have sex with anyone, especially not with someone whom you don't know well enough to know if they have an STD. We're not talking about the Ebola virus here, where people are infected simply by breathing in air or accidentally coughing on someone.

    It's basically no different than pregnancy. If you don't want to get pregnant, wear a condom. If you don't want an STD, wear a condom. So-called "victims" are not excused from their responsibility for themselves, and therefor mandating vaccination is nothing more than typical big government nannyism.

    Second, why direct democracy? According to which logic is something immoral if government just starts ordering it on the fly, yet it suddenly becomes moral if only a majority of the population wants it?
    Should i care whether a politician forces me to do something against my will, or a majority of other idiots or busybodies? Force is force, which is why "direct" democracy is no different from ordinary, representative democracy. It's power through numbers, not reason.

    So if you're arguing in favor of forcible vaccination, you may as well stop the pretence and trying to make it sound more palatable by using the phrase "direct democracy", and just come out and say: fvaccination by force for all.

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  9. @Anonymous 1:29 AM,

    Only if you're "beautiful"!

    The states thugs would probably be inclined to write the laws to accomodate the "ugly's". Lol!

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  10. McArdle went down this path a few years ago, stating a position on vaccination that came across as something like: "If you don't vaccinate your children, you are a danger to society and the state is justified in intervening." I stopped reading anything she had to say after that.

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    ReplyDelete