Thought of the Day 06.24.10

Imagine that I regularly suffer really bad headaches. One day, it’s particularly painful. So I decide to go down to the store and purchase a strong painkiller. When I get there, the pharmacist asks me for my prescription. I tell him I don’t need any stinking doctor telling me what to put in my body. I have a terrible headache and it’s not improving, so he’d better give me something strong for it. I’m obviously going to lose this argument.

But why as a society do we believe I should have to get powerful pain medication from a professional? Don’t I deserve pain relief, and isn’t it my life? The answer is obvious. Because only a professional can properly diagnose my condition and help me find a remedy which will do more good than harm, especially since many self-directed remedies could be extremely damaging to me. Thus, we require this not because we dislike people with headaches, but precisely because we care too much about them to let them self-administer such things.

Given the obviousness of this and its truth for all sorts of far more serious medical conditions, I just have one simple question. How sure are you that divorce should be available as an over-the-counter marriage remedy?