It’s My Body (and I’ll Die if I Want to)

What part of “it’s my body” do you arseholes not comprehend?

Health authorities in the United States have launched an investigation into concentrated energy drinks after the deaths of 13 people have raised questions about their safety. And yesterday two MPs called for urgent action in Britain; one of whom wants a temporary ban on their sale to under-16s until all risks have been assessed.

These drinks contain high levels of caffeine, sugar and taurine as well as some vitamins. They are intended to be taken as a one shot. They are not intended to be drunk in large quantities. If people do, then there is likely to be a side effect –  much as if you quaff gallons of coffee.

It is a matter of personal responsibility to exercise restraint and to imbibe the product as the manufacturer intended. It is a matter of parental responsibility to ensure that their offspring do likewise.

It is not the place of government to do it for us!

It is not the government’s place to ban anything. It is not the governments’s place to decide on our behalf what we may put into our bodies or how much. Indeed, how we live our lives and if we choose to go to hell in the hand basket of our choosing is up to us, not government, because, and I am growing weary of pointing it out, it is none of their damned business.

6 Comments

  1. There’s an element here of that standard feature of US litigation, the implication that, had it not been for whatever-the-case-is-about, the unfortunate victim would have lived forever.

    Anyone careless enough with their own or their children’s health to allow excessive consumption of these drinks is surely more likely than the rest of the population to meet an untimely end as a result of their own actions.

    Ever tried shortening the legs of a table…?

  2. You can OD on dihydrogen monoxide too: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/01/15/wii_death/

    A friend of mine almost killed himself by making a stimulant drink from tobacco. He should know better as his PhD is in physiology. 😆 Doesn’t even smoke any more – numbnut!

    To be honest, we both took extreme risks when we were at University together. I would prefer not to catalogue them, but there are defintely at least three where luck saved us. This figure can be safely trebled as these are the ones I remember.

    It’s only with the benefit of hindsight that these incidents were clearly a bit mad. But they shaped me. I still take risks, but they are considered well in advance – for any damage it might cause someone else, not me. Risk is fun.

    “It’s My Body”

    Not in Wales, it’s not. Presumed consent is the way forward.
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-19531108
    “In Wales last year, just 67 people donated organs for transplant”
    Did you see what the BBC did there? Would it be ‘only’ 167? 267? 1067?

    “Selfish bitch Moarag Jenkins, 97, who died on Tuesday, took her organs to her grave with her, sentencing to DEATH 98 orphans who could have benefited from organ donation”.

    I intend to leave Sweet Fanny Adams to the State when I snuff it, and if they find a fanny on me, they’re welcome to it.

  3. I can’t find the link now but the was a story in the local paper about a store that has banned energy drink sales to under 18’s.
    I didn’t pay much attention to it at the time but if scares are enough to make shops bring in their own bans, the state won’t even need to do it.
    Their gaff I suppose…

  4. I think there’s a place for government to warn people of risks, but even then, 13 people out of 300m people? You might as well get house builders to have to put a warning sign on flights of stairs, which kill far more people than that.

    We have become utterly in fear of death, even to the point where we stop living. Look at the government considering restrict millions of young drivers because of a few hundred deaths on the road. “You’ll have to have a family member with you”. Yeah, that’s going to be fun.

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