¶ … contact our customer service department at in her essay "Social Responsibility," written in 1990, Barbara Illingsworth argues that the primarily private behavior of homosexuals and intravenous drug addicts should not be curbed, even though their behavior exposes them to AIDS, because they primarily harm only themselves.
The date of the essay is significant, because history has proven her wrong. At the time of the essay, San Francisco was considering closing the bathhouses, common hangouts for homosexuals seeking casual sex, because they were perceived as an easy way for AIDS to spread among homosexual men. While this was likely true, Illingsworth argued that since they harmed only themselves, their right to behave in this way should not be curbed. Likewise, she argued that intravenous drug abusers should be allowed to continue with practices such as sharing needles because the problem remained within their social milieu.
She discusses the "weak harm...
This leads her to the 'strong harm principle," and she suggests that to curb these people's rights demonstrates strong harm (restricted rights) to correct a weak harm (self-injury).
She describes both groups as not always making a rational, autonomous decision to use a dirty needle or engage in risky sex, but then argues that society has driven these groups to behave in ways that are dangerous but pleasurable to them. She compares their behavioral choices to people who smoke, clearly risky behavior, people who eat too much, and people who have extramarital affairs. She makes the point that making mistakes is part of living fully, and suggests that we have no right to diminish someone's choices in that regard simply because they engage in what we might consider distasteful activities.
She argues that for a person to be autonomous, all of who they are must be treated with respect, and they…
