Let's stick with the analogy for a moment.
You've got this drug that you think might save your immortal soul, but have absolutely no evidence as to whether it actually will since there don't seem to be any functioning soul monitors in the local hospital. In fact opinion is divided about whether you even have one, but you decide to go ahead and take the drug anyway. It feels good and there can't be any harm in it, right?
Some time into this self proscribed treatment you discover certain side effects linked to the drug. On the one side it can produce euphoric feelings and a sense of deep and abiding well being. However, on the flip side it is highly addictive and any extended periods of abstinence leads to sickness, paranoia and even acts of physical violence. Indeed, so erratic is the drug that these symptoms can manifest even during periods of excessive use.....especially in the presence of the users of different drugs.
Think of the scenes outside a nightclub where a bunch of drunks meet up with a bunch of twitchy crack heads.
The question is:
Do you make this drug freely available to children?
Chemotherapies are often the treatment of last resort, especially to children, because of the associated risks, and we know that these can save your life.
Psychoactive substances and hallucinogens are generally illegal, even when there may be little or no evidence of associated addictive behaviour.
The minimum age to purchase legal drugs in the UK is 18. Strict licensing laws surround the pharmaceutical industry as well as the recreational use of tobacco and alcohol.
By your own measure, the immortal soul is the most precious organ in your entire body and yet you willfully self proscribe an untested, untestable, addictive and potentially dangerous ritual to keep it healthy, seemly at random from a shop counter stocked with hundreds of competing brands, each of which boldly claiming that not only are they uniquely efficacious, but that consumption of a rival substance will permanently undo all their good work.
And you let children into the shop and calmly select your favourite bottle from the shelf before helping them to spoon in their first mouthful.
Doesn't really seem right, does it?
Dizzy