"We should not legislate morality. Morality is a matter of private choice, not government legislation."
We legislate morality all the time, in many ways: laws against the murder of born persons, against rape, against other forms of assault, against theft, against libel and slander, and many more. These moral evils, as violations of the rights of persons, must be reflected in the law and made illegal.
It is true that certain parts of the moral domain should not be reflected in the law. For example, to be ungrateful is a moral wrong that should not be reflected in the law; indeed, it cannot be. There are other matters that are genuinely complex with regard to the question whether or not - and if so, to what extent - they should be reflected in the law. But surely the fundamental right to life, not to be killed, belongs within the domain of law. All civil rights should be protected by law.
Some years ago many people opposed civil rights legislation, saying, "You cannot legislate morality." Dr. Martin Luther King responded, "It is true, the law cannot make a white man love me, but it can discourage him from lynching me."2 The distinction drawn here, between the command to love and the prohibition against lynching is a good example of the difference between the non-legal domain of morality (love) and the legal domain (killing).
"We should not legislate morality. Morality is a matter of private choice, not government legislation."