The Worth of Freedom

As pointed out here:
My Blahg » A TALE OF TWO COLUMNS

Two columns in which both authors say the conjoined Simms’ twins should have been aborted.

The two columns are very similar in their arguments:

The Gateway | Tuesday, 31 October, 2006 | Volume XCVII Issue 15

Furthermore,
being on government assistance and with two other children to care for
already, she knew she would have to rely on Canada’s health-care system
to pay for an operation that may or may not work on little Tatiana and
Krista.

globeandmail.com: Twin sides of the coin

The
twins' mother, Felicia Simms, is a 21-year-old single woman on social
assistance. She has two other children, ages 4 and 2. She is unable to
work, she has said, because she has severe scoliosis — curvature of the
spine — and a panic disorder.

NO, I will not make a comment on any arguments for or against abortion, be drawn in to said arguments or even touch the arguments about this case.  However, I will use this as an opportunity to point out the emptiness of of libertarian conceptions of freedom against liberal equal freedom. 

Ms Simms' case, to me, is a shining example of how a guarantee of freedom is meaningless without some sort of system to ensure that such freedom is actually worth something to the individuals to whom it is guaranteed.  Without a redistributive system whereby individuals have the means to make choices (like Ms Simms did) a guarantee of freedom is in fact meaningless.  Had there not been a health care system in place she may have been forced by her circumstance to do something she would not otherwise have chosen to do.

The two columns, I presume, would be made quiet if Ms Simms won the lottery and moved to the United States.  To this end, it seems that the columns are saying that certain of our freedoms ought only to apply to those capable financing their decisions; to the rest of us, we are doomed to be slaves to the contingencies of necessity.  But, such a world is not fair as it privelleges some above others and punishes others for things wholly beyond their control.  For this reason, a charter that guarantees rights and freedoms is of no value unless it is coupled with a system that ensures that those freedoms can be exercised to some degree by all people. 

To those not swayed because they feel that they will always be in a position to have the resources to exercise their freedom: imagine that one day, out of the blue, the minister of finance makes a decision and your net worth is suddenly reduced... oh sorry, still a little bitter.




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