THE LIBERTY TO RISK ONE'S LIFE [To the Editor of
the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—Your article on this subject makes one invoke the spirit of J. S. Mill. Would that he and his like were here to remind a forgetful world of the dangers of restricting the liberty of any adult for any reason whatever, except to prevent him using it to injure others or to restrict (directly or indirectly) their liberties !
Judged by that test, the case for non-interference in Atlantic flying seems as clear for non-intervention as any case which ever existed. No one is compelled or even impelled to share the risk. If disaster comes, it usually comes under such conditions that there is no obligation on others to risk their lives in attempts at rescue. No one can so well judge either of the extent of the risk or of the advantages and disadvan- tages—public and personal—of attempting it as the aviator who knows his own powers and purposes. The realm of discovery and adventure is surely about the last where it would be safe to allow the community, or some Jack-in- office of its appointment, to override the judgment of individuals as to what risks they themselves should take for themselves.
As for your amazing dictum, that the woman passenger at least should have been prevented from ascending, what on earth has her sex to do with it, except on the theory that a woman is always a half-child, incapable of judging for her- self ? She displaces presumably just as much or as little petrol as a man. If a crash comes, the chances of survival for anyone on board are probably so small as to be scarcely worth bothering about, but such as they are they presumably depend on (a) swimming power ; (b) toughness of vitality—perhaps the two physical qualities where women have most trium- phantly vindicated themselves.
The tradition that women are to be forcibly prevented from endangering themselves is surely a pasteboard and tinsel imitation of mediaeval chivalry. The right to endanger oneself depends, I suggest, on the balance between the value of the object sought and the amount of misery or loss, spiritual or material, that one's death would cause, e.g., other things being equal, a married man with a dependent family has far less right than a single woman without dependents ; a young man less right than an old one, etc.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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