Directions: Read the following passage and answer the questions given below:
There is a segment of people in society who advocates the repeal of motorcycle helmet law. The current helmet law saves hundreds of lives per year, and it is senseless that people should be injured or killed merely because they are too vain to wear a helmet. Furthermore, helmet laws help to reduce public expenditures on health care. One hardly needs to appeal to statistics to show that helmets protect motorcyclists against injury or death. For those who are skeptical, one can refer to recent studies. The available statistics are impossible to ignore. If motorcyclists wish to protect themselves against injury and death, they should wear a helmet whenever they ride. Many opponents of the helmet law agree that helmets save motorcyclists’ lives, but insist that the decision to wear a helmet should be left to the individual rider. Perhaps this argument would be valid if motorcyclists were the only ones negatively affected by their decision, but this is not the case. Few studies reveal that only about half of injured
motorcyclists were properly insured, which means many of these riders likely relied on public funds to subsidize their healthcare costs. If the
citizens choose to repeal the helmet law, we can expect these costs to rise significantly. Opponents of the helmet law offer two main arguments. First, the law’s detractors argue that properly educating riders is the best way to avoid accidents. I agree entirely; all motorcycle riders should be properly educated and should ride their bikes responsibly. Some accidents, however, are unavoidable, and as it has been argued, helmets significantly reduce health care expenditures associated with all accidents. Second, opponents argue that helmet laws infringe on their personal freedom. Again, it is agreed that the government should avoid constraining individual choice whenever possible, but as it has been shown, the decision to wear a helmet does not affect only the test subject; it is not a simple matter of individual liberty. In a perfect world, helmet laws would not be necessary because all riders would wear them voluntarily. However, we do not live in a perfect world. Therefore, we must require motorcyclists to make this socially responsible decision.