ABSTRACT
Preventive measures which influence the population as a whole even more clearly than vaccinations and quarantines do, include the installation of plumbing and the fluoridation of drinking water. In addition to face-to-face clinical paternalism and public health education, the populations of industrialized societies are also subject to more delicate and far more extensive forms of possibly paternalistic intervention. These include, laws regulating dangerous behaviour in everyday life, regulations concerning the manufacture, advertising, sale and consumption of drugs and intoxicating substances, and preventive medical and sociopolitical measures such as quarantines, vaccinations and plumbing. Prescription drug laws are extremely important and useful to physicians, who through the power of the legal system are given the monopoly to control what drugs people use and when. As regards laws regulating dangerous everyday behaviour, there are two examples which have often dominated philosophical discussions on the topic, namely driving a car without using a seat belt and riding a motorcycle without wearing a crash helmet.
