Does the goverment have the right to make a law that will definitely kill innocent people?

Question

that would otherwise live if they were not obaying the law?


There will be another part to this question added later

A cop once told me that the odds of dying in a car crash due to WEARING a seatbelt were 1 in a thousand. But with much more than that occuring in american in a year, the numbers of people who died in a car accident can grow enormously. These are innocent people, who died because of the law. My father when he was 18 was driving his car accross a bridge. A semi merged over through him, and pushed him off the bridge (there was only a guard rail there) (this was around 40 years ago) the car landed on the roof after a 20-30 foot drop, and smashed the car down to the window line (and condensed it maybe a little further than that). If he were wearing his seat belt, he would have been kept upright, therefore dying. Then I wouldn't have been born. (luckily when he fell he was turned sideways and able to lay in the seat) On 12/7/02 I was involved in a car accident where the guy was driving a truck, went off the side the road on his side and whipped it back on to the road,

and then went over off of my side of the road, and whipped it back on over correcting again. This time he went right into my car, and up and over the hood, and took out the metal bar on the drivers side of the winshield inbetween the drivers window, and ripped the drivers seat back and ripped out of my car right after the seat. through the windows. and ripped the roof back. If I was in my seat belt, I would have stayed aligned with the seat, and died. Instead I flew up to the windshied in the direction of the passengers side, and avoided being permentaly killed. ( I did die but came back in the helicopter)

But my point is, If my dad or myself had obayed the law, we would not be here today. What gives the goverment the right to say that we should have died?

And it seems like a car accident is a matter of luck if you are going to survive it. I guess @ least the cop didn't charge me 10 bucks for living. I mean not wearing a seatbelt. And this question makes perfect sense. Just not to law makers. And I couldn't have wrote the question any better.

Answer 1

Before I answer your question, let me say that I am a libertarian. Havng said that, the government's only role is to protect individual rights. Mandated seatbelts are outcomes of a nany-state. They should be repealed.

Answer 2

Depends what the purpose of the law is. I mean, if there's something that if people did it, there was some small risk to themselves (like a 1 in 1 million chance of death), but there was a large, significant risk to other people (say, 1 in 100 chance of death) if they didn't do it, the government has a right to pass the law. But they should also realistically expect that a lot of people wouldn't obey it.

Edited to add: Oh, for heaven's sake . I thought this was going to be about something interesting or contraversial, not something as common sense as seatbelts. Sure, you can die because of a seat belt. You could also die by being hit by a car while jogging, or get e-coli from spinach, but that doesn't mean that exercising and eating your veggies isn't generally good for your life expectancy.

Answer 3

The government passes laws by a legislature elected by the people of that state, or the united states in the case of seat belts because they are regulated by the federal government. In other words, those are the laws the people ultimately want. When laws are passed, policy decisions are made based generally on what's good for the most amount of people. Someone will always get screwed but if they can save a zillion lives with seat belts, they won't say let's not do that because Joe blow with his ridiculous fact pattern wouldn't have been born.

Answer 4

The government is merely a group of people, notably ungoverned. No group of people has any more or less right to do anything that an individual may or may not do.
If you do not have the right to kill your neighbor, except in defense, then neither does the 30-member gang from the other side of town (though they may outnumber him), nor may the larger gang of thugs in residence in whatever building they may call a "capitol".

Answer 5

The United Syates Constitution is the foundation of our system of government. If a newly created law conflicts with the Constitution,it becomes null and void(Marbury vs. Madison 1803).

Answer 6

The Government does do it, and we vote in the government so don't blame them- they were chosen by you..

Your question should be --do we support a law that does this and check the turn out in the next election for your answer.

A lot of Americans dislike Bush --But who put him in TWICE??

Answer 7

You should specify the law itself. A law has different meaning for different people. Maybe you are viewing it from a different angle from that of the government

Answer 8

IF they do sumthing Very BAd the Goverment has a right to kill Him/Her well ... If they kill some1 by accident Then sue for millions.

Answer 9

The war in Iraq & Afganistan

Answer 10

'...And for these reasons governments were set up by men'.
I doubt that governments should be granted the right to kill even guilty people, unless they are a real threat to the national liberties.