Some recent posts claimed that cheating on one's spouse harms the other, while other activities like "smokers who smoke in private" do not harm others. As a physician, I found that to be quite naive. Yet I can understand that common impression. Many Goenkars smoke and perhaps may have similar views. So, I want to address this subject. This is NOT to re-start a "stimulating" morality dialogue. I hope individuals with such thinking, and smoking habits, do not get defensive.
As suggested, with smoking in public, second-hand smoke does increase the risk of cancer in the associates (family members and co-workers). The issue here is about the harm to "others" from the "smokers who smoke in private". Here are some facts worth contemplating. A smoker has a ten-year SHORTER life expectancy that non-smokers. Many smokers die in their late forties and fifties from smoking related illness - mainly heart attack and cancer. Those who live long, many live with lung problems and breathing difficulties - like emphysema. So, does not a Goenkar-smoker cheat on / short-change his wife and kids by dying early and leaving his family to fend for themselves? If he survives long, is the smoker not being a burden on his family by being a wheelchair cripple? Does the smoking habit not decrease the family's finances available for useful endeavors? I have avoided the larger picture of society's burden to care for smoking-related illnesses. As the saying goes, "No man (or woman) is an island." Kind Regards, GL _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list [email protected] http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org
