Grotkowska Katarzyna, Laws like a prescription?

Paternalism, as shown in Latin etymology (lat. „pater” means „father”) is a feature of a relationship in which one subject restricts the freedom of another one, so that his behaviour would not do him any harm. Paternalism can be talked about with reference to a relation between a doctor and patient, an employer and employee, a teacher and student . The specific form of paternalism is legal paternalism, in other words, a situation in which the legislator, by enacting appropriate obligations or prohibitions, protects people against themselves (restricts their liberty) . Legal paternalism could be defined as forcing certain behaviours on a person so that the person would avoid any harm.

The impact zones of paternalism which comes from various fields may overlap. This situation happens in the case of addictions : on the one hand addictions (drug addiction, compulsive gambling, alcoholism) are a medical problem. But on the other hand, the legislator enacted many rules, which regulate...