norml21 - Page 57

 Mill, however, did not offer this criterion as solely a
 simplistic measure of rights° He was aware that liberty could
 only be preserved by balancing collective rights with individual
 rights.
 I fully admit that the mischief which a
 person does to himself may seriously affect,
 both through their s_npathies and their
 interests, those nearly connected with him_
 and, in a minor degree_ society at large.
 When, by conduct of this sort, a person is
 led to violate a distinct and assignable
 obligation to any other person or persons_
 the case is taken out of the self-regarding
 class and becomes amenable to moral
 disapprobation in the proper sense of the
 term° If, for example, a man, through
 inte_)erance or extravagance, becomes unable
 to pay his debts, or having undertaken the
 moral responsibility of a family, becomes
 from the same cause incapable of supporting
 or educating them, he is deservedly
 reprobated and might be justly punished; but
 it is for the breach of duty to his family or
 creditors_ not for the eztravagance. If the
 resources which ought to have been devoted to
 them had been diverted from them for the most
 prudent investmentg the moral culpability
 would have been the same° George Barnwell
 murdered his uncle to get money for his
 mistress, but if he had done it to set
 himself up in business, he would equally have
 been hanged. Again, in the frequent case of
 a man who causes grief to his family by
 addiction to bad habits, he deserves reproach
 for his unkindness or ingratitude; but so he
 may for cultivating habits not in themselves
 vicious, if they are painful to those with
 whom he passes his lifef or who from personal
 ties are dependent on him for their comfort°
 Whoever fails in the consideration generally
 due to the interests and feelings of others,
 not being compelled by some more imperative
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