Hi, I am preparing for the December 12 ACT and would appreciate your thoughts on my essay and what you would grade it as (and why if you can).
Prompt: Public Health and Individual Freedom (full prompt: http://www.act.org/aap/pdf/Preparing-for-the-ACT.pdf#page=37&zoom=auto,-21,377 )
People hate being controlled. Because most people desire having free will, the society we live in is built on foundations of freedom. However, is it justifiable for an individual’s personal volition to harm the health of others? Many argue for the importance of the public health over individual freedom. Acts like smoking are personal choices that have possible health detriments, and are thus restricted in some areas. While this seems reasonable, still others place freedom as the most valuable aspect of life. Although freedom is important, the potential detriment to others’ health is too great a risk for the institution of complete individual freedom.
When trying to balance freedom and health, the needs of the many should be emphasized over the wants of the few. It is most logical to try to achieve the most good for the most people; however, some individuals’ freedom could interfere, and should be limited. For example, certain types of automobiles, like large trucks, have poor emissions. An individual may want to express his/her freedom by driving an inefficient truck, but by doing so they would increase pollution and health risks to people around their vehicle. As a result, there are many car regulations to restrict the amount of pollutants from cars like these. In this scenario, an individual’s wants poses a possible health detriment to many others. Certainly, this freedom cannot be imposed-the health of the many outweigh and individual’s personal freedom.
Other pro-health advocates will argue that the right to avoid health risks is a freedom, too. Many individuals would prefer to not be exposed to dangerous carcinogens released by a cigarette, for instance. Their right to stay healthy should be recognized. An individual who wants to smoke would endanger those around them with an increased risk of lung cancer. Thus, by allowing smoking in all public places, we would damage both the health of people and the freedom to be healthy. In my perspective, this health detriment is a bigger cost than the cost of restricting someone’s freedom to smoke. Essentially, we should allow both a person’s health and a person’s right to avoid disease to be risked at the cost of individual freedom.
Even though there are health risks when individuals have complete freedom, some argue that the freedom is worth it. This point of view reasons that personal freedom is worth more than the safety of the public. Proponents of this side might say that having complete freedom allows humans to express their true self, and that limiting freedom could endanger our humanity. However, this is erroneous, as certain individuals’ true self could pose a huge danger to others–say, if this person wanted to be a killer–and thus that individual freedom could in fact endanger others’ lives and they would not have humanity. This point of view might still argue that if people do not want to be exposed to health risks like smoking, they would not be in places where people smoke. However, this contradicts itself, as then people who value their health would have their freedom restricted by not being able to go to where they want. Overall, while some argue that health risks are justifiable where freedom is achieved, in reality, the health of the public is more important.
In society, there are often conflicts over the importance of freedom versus public health. Those in favor of complete freedom believe that some health risks are okay if individuals’ freedom is secured. Others say that we need to strive to have the greatest amount of people have the greatest good, and freedom should not interfere. Then, some believe avoiding health risks is a freedom in itself. The truth is, the maintenance of total individual freedom is not worth the possible harms to the public health.
(looking over this, since i typed what i wrote on paper, i feel like maybe i should spend more time planning and write less?)
thanks for any feedback! 