Freedom includes the right to poison yourself?


The EPA is not enforcing mercury regulations on RELIGIOUS grounds?
I missed this one, but one of the groups I watch caught it (be sure to read the comments).

Ritualistic use of toxic mercury by followers of Voodoo and other religions is dangerous but regulating it could drive the practice underground and possibly violate U.S. guarantees of freedom of religion, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Thursday.

Mercury can be worn in amulets, sprinkled on the floor, or added to an oil lamp as part of some Latino and Afro-Caribbean practices including Santeria, Palo, Voodoo, and Espiritismo, according to the EPA's inspector general.

Some practitioners believe that the mercury, which forms tiny droplets in liquid form, can attract love, luck or riches, and even ward off evil, the report said.

But mercury's toxic effects are pronounced in the nervous systems and brains of exposed children, and can damage organs and cause seizures in adults.

"Mercury vapors resulting from ritual uses can pose a health risk," the EPA said. "Persons involved in such rituals should be aware of these risks."

There could be a legal basis for the EPA to regulate mercury use, but "starting the process to establish such regulations would drive the practice underground," EPA staff said.

Staff also warned that "restricting the use of mercury might be challenged as a violation of the First Amendment" to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees U.S. religious freedoms, among other things.

The first thing that struck me was that the EPA seemed willing to overlook it on First Amendment grounds while the DEA is not willing to overlook peyote and cannabis crimes on the same grounds.

But this does raise two issues, aside from enforcing the laws.

Does the American state have the power to prevent someone from harming themselves? Constitutionally, the answer is no. The government doesn't have the power to keep you from jumping into molten steel, any more than it has the power to keep you from slicing your veins open or blowing the back of your head off. You can't be protected from yourself.

I'd question if the government can protect you from others in anything but the broadest sense, but that is a topic for another time.

So if you want to gargle with battery acid or take a Rambo knife to a high voltage line, it is certainly your right and privilege. The only time the state has the power to interfere is when your actions threaten others.

And that brings us to the second issue. While you have every right to do whatever to yourself, you have no right to do anything to anyone else without their consent.

Spreading mercury not only affects you, it affects the people who follow you in that space. If you are in an apartment, it could affect the people below you and around you.

And yes, it could affect your children and other children around you.

This is the only basis I can see for regulation. My problem is that I do not trust the government to regulate.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Sun - September 3, 2006 at 04:28 AM  Tag


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