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"It's My Body" Fallacy
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No, it's not just your body. It's your whole lineage forever. Get it? |
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It's
common to hear health education programs tell teenagers that no one
else has a right to tell them what to do with their body and that no
one has the right to force you to do something you don't want to do.
The hidden implication of course is that when teens decide they are
ready for sex, no one has the right to tell them not to have sex either
(as long as they used socalled "protection"). This could be called the
infallability of the self. As long as an individual makes a decision on
his/her own, no one else, we are told, has the right to challenge it.
This
"It's My Body" mantra is one of those truisms that lies at the same
time it tells a partial truth. Yes, we each have a right (or
obligation) to reject unwanted advances (advances outside of a
lifelong, committed love relationship, ie marriage?), but that really
doesn't help very much since it is all left in the realm of personal
preference, as if it were an issue of choosing between different
flavors of ice cream.
Isn't basing teen sexuality education on
the foundation of personal preference a risky scheme? In the heat of
the moment, when one's heart and mind are alternating between
clearminded longrange goals and passionate desires for love and
intimacy, it may not be clear what I want "my body" to do. Don't we
have an obligation to give teens more than this facile and ultimately
shallow half-truth?
If I have uncommitted sex and become
infected with chlamydia, herpes, or HPV does that just affect me alone?
If I become sterile from chlamydia and never give birth to any
children, that surely affects many, many lives that could have been. If
I give birth to a child who is born with AIDS or who becomes an orphan
through my premature death my actions surely have affected that child
and, in fact, many others.
Do we allow people an absolute
right to do whatever they want with their bodies? What if someone says,
"I have decided to use heroin. It's my body. It doesn't affect you."
Our society understands that individual sexual, alcohol or drug-using
behavior affects many people, not just the individual, and passes laws
regulating "individual" behavior.
Who
owns "my body"? My life, mind and body are the result of countless
generations including parents and grandparents and connected to a web
of relatives including aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews, and
possibly children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. What "I" do
in life will give them joy or shame, pride or sadness. Aren't each of
us the fruit of a lineage and family history and the beginning point of
future generations? Don't they deserve some thoughtful consideration
beyond just "my body"?
When we join in sexual
intimacy with someone we are potentially joining our lineage with that
person's. For that reason, having sex is never just a personal act. We
have to ask ourselves whether we really want the person we feel
attracted to to become a permanent part of our lineage. We have to go
beyond the "fast food" view of human relations where partners are used
and discarded at will. In fact such a view is a self-destructive
illusion.
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| No, it's not just your body. It's your whole lineage forever. Get it? |
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