Citation

Ten CL. Bioethics 1989; 3(2): 135-139.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1989, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

11649243

Abstract

In an article in the January 1989 issue of Bioethics, George W. Rainbolt argued that prescription drug laws are justified as examples of permissible hard paternalism, which allows interference with people's voluntary choices, but that they cannot be justified as soft paternalism, which permits interference with people's conduct only when their choices are insufficiently voluntary. In this comment, Ten contends that Rainbolt's case against soft paternalism fails because Rainbolt does not pay sufficient attention to the relationship between first-level knowledge and metaknowledge and to the different requirements of voluntary risk-taking.

Language: en