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But that's my whole point: that the law is the imposition of one person's views on another.


It's the singular I cavil at here; for example, to take the devil's advocate position, I'd skip the whole "is abortion murder? Does life begin at conception?" arguement and stipulate that, after a lifetime of working with ( and sometimes being one..) children abused in various ways, I'd say: So, OK, it's murder; I'd rather smother them painlessly in the delivery room than leave them to the fates I've seen them experience...but I don't expect society to permit me to do that anytime soon; that's not permitted to be an individual decision, and probably shouldn't be. It can't be a simple matter of majority rules, either, however; in wartime Germany the laws supported genocide. Generally, I'd go with the 10 Commandments, with which most societies agree--although not always about their narrow interpretation--and that's where laws governing society belong.. But I suspect both you and I can visualize situations in which the dictates of our individual conscience would supercede the law--and where we'd be willing to take the responsibility for a decision, both personally, vis-a-vis our own belief systems, and with society. What I'm advocating is that we allow each other to live by our own belief systems and with our own consciences, as long as they don't actively infringe on each other. That, to me, is the essence of civil society.