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Whereas the harm principle aims to prevent harm to others, the principle of legal paternalism aims to prevent harm to self. The argument in favor of restricting a person's liberty—and we are speaking of adults here —often begins with an analogy to the parent-child relationship. Just as children sometimes make the wrong decisions about their own best interests and must be ruled by their parents, so too do adults sometimes need to be ruled by their guardian, the state. This analogy is most plausible when an adult is unable to act voluntarily because she or he is ignorant of crucial information or is blocked by some form of internal or external coercion. It is least plausible when an adult knows what he or she is doing and is under no coercive force to do it. Whereas most adults want to be saved from making mistakes they regard as foolish or forced —that is, mistakes made in ignorance or under duress—they do not also want to be stopped from making the kind of "mistakes" that reflect their own idiosyncratic priorities.

When it comes to state interference with competent adults' decisions to act in what is perceived as less than their own best interests, cases can be made both against and for such interference. Antipaternalists argue, for example, that if a competent woman wants to smoke in the privacy of her own home, or if a competent man wants to drink in the privacy of his own home, then the state has no right to interfere. Although smoking and drinking present health hazards to each of these individuals respectively, antipaternalists insist that it is not the state's prerogative to force people to be as healthy as possible. If a person values short-term creature comforts more than long-term health benefits, it is that person's prerogative to add some health risks to his or her life. After all, of what significance is free expression if the only things that a person can express freely are those that have the state's seal of approval?

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Women’s Health