Featured Articles
Can They Patent Your Genes?
Daniel J. Kevles
A Supreme Court case with huge consequences for American biomedicine
In the Beautiful, Threatened North
Ian Frazier
Subhankar Banerjee's 'Arctic Voices: Resistance at the Tipping Point'
It’s For Your Own Good!
Cass R. Sunstein
Many Americans abhor paternalism. They think that people should be able to go their own way, even if they end up in a ditch. When they run risks, even foolish ones, it isn’t anybody’s business that they do. In this respect, a significant strand in American culture appears to endorse the central argument of John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty. In his great essay, Mill insisted that as a general rule, government cannot legitimately coerce people if its only goal is to protect people from themselves. Mill’s claim has a great deal of intuitive appeal. But is it right?
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