The Right to Self-Medicate: Freedom, Self-Determination, and Paternalism

The principle of informed consent - patients' right to be informed about their treatment options and refuse them when they choose - is widely respected.

However, although enforced medical treatments are widely considered morally impermissible because they subvert this principle, patients are routinely prevented from accessing alternative treatment options they similarly believe to better serve their interests. This project will argue for greater rights to self-medicate.

It will address both concerns about self-determination and the dangers of broader drug access, before arguing that not only are rights to self-medicate ethically justified, but that paternalistic policies prohibiting them counterproductively leave people worse off.