My University of Virginia "Taboo Trades" Podcast on the "My Body, My Choice" Principle and its Implications

I took questions from University of Virginia law Prof. Kim Krawiec and a group of UVA law students.

(Public Domain)

I recently did a podcast on the "My Body, My Choice" principle, as part of the University of Virginia "Taboo Trades" podcast series, run by UVA law Professor Kim Krawiec. I took questions on a variety of topics from Prof. Krawiec and a group of UVA law students. They raised many insightful points. Listeners can judge my answers for themselves. The podcast audio is available here.

Here is the description:

On this episode, George Mason Law's Ilya Somin joins me and UVA Law students Joseph Camano ('24) and Dennis Ting ('24) to discuss the full implications of "My Body, My Choice." Somin argues that the principle has implications that go far beyond abortion (including paying kidney donors, and abolishing the draft and mandatory jury service) and that both liberals and conservatives are inconsistent in their application.

Prof. Krawiec helpfully included a list of links to relevant writings by the two of us, that address issues raised in the podcast:

Ilya Somin, Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter (Stanford University Press, revised and expanded second edition, 2016)

Ilya Somin,  Free to Move: Foot Voting, Migration, and Political Freedom (Oxford University Press, 2020, revised and expanded edition, 2022)

Ilya Somin, A Broader Perspective on "My Body, My Choice"

Ilya Somin, Are Abortion Bans Takings?

Ilya Somin, Markets with Just a Few Limits

Ilya Somin, review of Cass Sunstein's book Too Much Information:

https://reason.com/volokh/2020/10/16/two-important-new-books-on-knowledge-bias-and-paternalism/

Ilya Somin, "Warning About Government Warnings":

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/08/22/a-warning-about-government-warnings/

Kim Krawiec, personal webpage https://kimberlydkrawiec.org and University of Virginia Law School webpage https://www.law.virginia.edu/faculty/profile/kdk4q/1181653

Krawiec, Kimberly D. "Markets, repugnance, and externalities." Journal of Institutional Economics (2022): 1-12.

Healy, Kieran, and Kimberly D. Krawiec. "Repugnance management and transactions in the body." American Economic Review 107.5 (2017): 86-90.

Krawiec, Kimberly D. "No Money Allowed." U. Chi. Legal F. (2022): 221.

Cook, Philip J., and Kimberly D. Krawiec. "A primer on kidney transplantation: anatomy of the shortage." Law & Contemp. Probs. 77 (2014): 1.

Cook, Philip J., and Kimberly D. Krawiec. "If We Allow Football Players and Boxers to Be Paid for Entertaining the Public, Why Don't We Allow Kidney Donors to Be Paid for Saving Lives." Law & Contemp. Probs. 81 (2018): 9.

I particularly recommend Krawiec's excellent article (coauthored with Philip J. Cook) arguing that, if we are willing to pay people to play dangerous sports, such as football, we should also legalize organ markets. I have made similar points myself, but not in as much depth and detail.

Comments

[AmosArch]

Your body your choice....except for vaxxs even when you don't have any public contact and well after the pandemic is understood to the point where it is clear that your refusal isn't going to kick up another pandemic. And large sodas, and guns, and plastic bags, and straws, pizzaria ovens, meat, light bulbs, single bin trashes, employer choice, private schools, property rights, praying in public, pregnancy centers, plastic bottles....and flavored vapes....can't have those because only children like flavors and you're not a child silly goose. And thanks to the 'affirmative consent' movement looks like even sex itself is being forced into an increasingly rigorously prescribed and regimented bureaucratic practice even for couples who wouldn't otherwise care out of increasingly draconian liability fears. The politicians have actually gotten into your bedroom but they don't look like they're from the right.

Oh and anything else leftists don't like...

Other than that. Your body your choice.

[Longtobefree]

Gas stoves, General; don't forget gas stoves.

[David Nieporent]

Your body your choice….except for vaxxs

I am unaware of any Americans who were forcibly vaccinated.

[AmosArch]

So if women started getting fired from their jobs and lost their ability to go out to places because they got an abortion and there was a crowd angrily protesting this would you jump in and shout. 'I am unaware of any American woman who was forced to keep their pregnancy.'?

[Nige]

There wasn't a global pandemic of pregnancies where people caught pregnancies through airborne infection and spread pregnancies that left people dead or disabled.

[Michael Ejercito]

That does not answer the question.

[Nige]

Women still sometimes lose their jobs and definitely lose their ability to go places when they get pregnant. So you support abortion!

[Davy C]

Firing someone for becoming pregnant is pretty much illegal. Firing someone for not getting vaccinated was close to becoming mandatory. Close enough that people had to have started taking the shots if they were going to be fully vaccinated before the regulation took effect.

[Nige]

Yes, it *had to be made* (mostly) illegal, but it still often affects career prospects. Firing people for not taking the shots did not become mandatory, which is just as well because there are people with sound medical reasons for not taking the shots, and they are the same people who are at higher risk from covid. Everyone else exposes themselves as a crank or just plain reckless.

[Michael Ejercito]

It did become mandatory via an executive order, which was subsequently struck down in a judicial challenge.

[Joe_dallas]

Lots of employers made getting the vax mandantory.

[Nige]

Oh tough shit you whining child. 'I can't get a stupidly large soda, that's like being forced to go through a pregnancy I don't want!'

'The politicians have actually gotten into your bedroom'

I'm sorry rape is illegal. If you choose to rape with your body, that's your choice, supposedly?

'Other than that. Your body your choice.'

Oh, wait, if we're treating this as some sort of vast all-encompassing principle that over-rides everything else, rather than a slogan about bodily autonomy and the right to make medical decisions about your own body, and that includes your entire list of baby grievances, then you DO support abortion.

[Krayt]

Snotty pols sbould not mess with stupidly large sodas.

“I never have chef bring me a drink that large, so nobody should.”

[Nige]

I don’t give a fuck. When we get book banning and supression of college courses and oppression of trans people, we get ‘thats what the voters’ want,’ don’t we? Yay democracy! Better minor restrictions on the shittiest of shit food than major restrictions on knowledge, books and people.

[Michael Ejercito]

Where have books been banned?

[AmosArch]

Typical arrogance. The stuff other people like is trivial and unimportant but Obama forbid anyone interfere or abridge in even the slightest your pastimes of killing babies and controlling others dietary choices! Thats sacred!

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

mandatory jury service

Does that stray near or into "taxation is theft" and "no center lines, stop signs, or red lights" territory (full-bore Kooktown, inhabited by anti-government cranks, disaffected misfits, sovereign patriot citizens, Moorish sovereign dumbasses, and the like)?

[Magister]

Would we be better off with professional jurors? I doubt it, but I could be persuaded. Military conscription has been replaced by paid volunteers despite requirements for draft registration.

[MeanGene]

Nice set of Leftish dog-whistles there, Artie. Are you sure you're not a parody?

[Dr. Ed 2]

Your body, your responsibility, your baby, YOUR problem.

[Magister]

Which many women propose to deal with by getting an abortion.

[Joe_dallas]

Which denies the baby's choice of his/her body.

The mental gymnastics to justify killing the innocents

[Magister]

Are you thinking about emancipated zygotes?

[Longtobefree]

How is it "your body" when it has unique DNA?

[wnoise]

I had a tumor with unique DNA. (They did actually genetically test it to see what drugs would be best if surgery didn't manage to get it all.) Despite the unique DNA, I still excised it. Given the existence of twins, unique DNA is neither necessary nor sufficient to be a separate being.

[Ben of Houston]

I would like to point out also that the principle applies to lobotomies, electroshock therapy, conversion therapy, crystal healing, psychic treatments, juice purges, and a host of other "medical" treatments that are derisively referred to for very good reason.

If you cannot ban a medical treatment based on the principle of privacy and personal choice, that applies to all "medical" treatments, even those that are little short of torture or fraud.

[JParker]

"[...] if we are willing to pay people to play dangerous sports, such as football, we should also legalize organ markets."

I dislike this form of argument since it can easily be turned into its inverse, i.e., "if we are willing to ban organ markets, we should also ban dangerous sports, such as football."