If you’re doing something that you believe is truly moral and ethical, something done solely out of the goodness of your heart, you’re probably not too concerned about the legality.
But maybe you should be, because it turns out that there are plenty of moral things you can do that are actually illegal . This r/AskReddit thread on the subject is truly fascinating.
RELATED STORIES
Just military things.
“Oh the military is full of these.
Holding hands, kissing, and hugging are illegal when in uniform. So is falling in love with a coworker (I’m not talking about a supervisor). Almost got charged for all of this by an officer who was sleeping with a subordinate.”
This seems a tad extreme.
“When I was in high school a student was suspended for 2 weeks for sharing her asthma inhaler with a friend that had trouble breathing. Sharing prescription medication in my country is illegal even if you’re trying to help someone.”
But why?!
“In some states it’s illegal to collect rainwater. I find this so incredibly arrogant and ridiculous. It should be illegal to make collecting rain water illegal.”
“The idea that the water belongs to everyone so collecting is taking from the public.”
Don’t you dare collect that trash.
“A city in my state was having a city cleanup, where they put stuff on their curb to send to the landfill, Fridges appliances couches etc. the city workers reminded everyone it was ‘illegal’ to take these instead of letting the city workers pick them up.”
If you’re homeless, existence is basically illegal.
“Sleeping in your car when you’re homeless, or sleeping anywhere that’s not a hotel or your own bed for that matter in the United States. Seriously how did we get so bad to make homelessness illegal.”
Fortunately, this isn’t the case everywhere.
“Where I live, euthanasia. Having had to watch a relative waste away as they could no longer eat properly, had no clue who they were or who anyone else was, and was just so scared…how is making them live or wait until they starve/dehydrate the moral choice?”
When wholesomeness is against the law.
“Lemonade stands. Your child’s lemonade stand can teach them valuable lessons and are pretty harmless but can be shutdown without permit and department of health inspections.”
“I will screech my car to a halt for a lemonade stand. I don’t even like lemonade.”
Maybe they just want to save you from your bad decisions.
“In my state, KY, it is illegal to marry the same person 3 times. So I would say that would qualify as moral but illegal.”
“I can’t imagine this occurs often but what’s the precedent or rationale for this? just to not bog down the system with crazy couples?”
At least there’s a reason for this one.
“Donating unused insulin to those in need.”
“Medication in general. Once it’s left the pharmacy it’s no longer considered ‘safe.’ Not even so much because of tampering (though people can be terrible and try to poison those they hate), but just storing things under the wrong conditions can render them useless to dangerous.”
Whistleblowers are vital.
“Whistleblowing. Supposedly legal…but you know the drill.”
– u/Shnast
“Heck, a person in Indonesia was working together with cops as informant for a couple of years. After she reported the corruption, she was detained.
Luckily it went viral in social media, so the government quickly took care of it.”
Just let the collectors have their bottles.
“In Germany: putting your empty beer bottle next to the trash can in cities instead of into the trash can. It’s in principle littering, but it makes it so bottle collectors don’t have to crawl through the trash (there is a deposit on the bottles).”
That’s what civil disobedience is all about.
“In many countries speaking out against the malicious and corrupt actions of the government would certainly fall under the category of moral but illegal.”
“Most recently Hong Kong, which claims to have global jurisdiction over what you say about it.”
Sometimes pirates are the good guys.
“Pirating abandonware.”
“And old movies, music, etc. Copyright terms are ridiculously long. There’s no reason (other than greed) that it should last long after the creator’s death. The people who own the copyrights to old content often had no more to do with its creation than I did.”
One person’s trash cannot legally be another person’s treasure.
“In Japan? Recycling someone’s garbage without permission. Touching their garbage at all. You could use a discarded couch and save it from the garbage dump, but be arrested for it.”
If we can’t have it, no one can.
“Grabbing thrown out food from a groceries shop’s dumpster.”
“I know one UK company that [has been] known to squash and crush the food they are putting in the dumpster to stop homeless people getting it.
I get that they don’t want dumpster divers but this particularly cruel.”
You’d better not be feeding hungry kids.
“Cafeteria workers at schools feeding children that don’t have money.”
– u/P1nk33
“Having worked in a school kitchen, it breaks their hearts to have to deny any child food. Most, if not all, public schools in the US have free/reduced meal programs, but the parents have to sign up for it; many parents are too ‘proud’ to get help, so their children suffer.”
Sometimes it’s illegal to be a Good Samaritan.
“Paying for other people’s parking meters.”
“In many places, you’re technically not even allowed to feed your OWN meter. They’re to control congestion, and when your time is up, you’re supposed to move your car to another spot.”
Zero tolerance makes no sense.
“Reporting a bully. You get the same punishment as your bully because you were involved in a fight, because you were hit, pushed, etc. Or helping someone who is being bullied.
My son was expelled for helping a student that was being beat up. I always taught him to defend the person being picked on. There was a kid that bullied others and several parents had already complained.”
I thought dumpsters were fair game…
“Grabbing thrown out clothes from clothing stores/furniture/appliances, brand new stuff that just didn’t sell or was out of season. Truly wasteful and probably a terrible. My mom used to drive behind strip malls with me as a kid and we’d find all sorts of good stuff, Pier 1 Imports used to have some good stuff, so did Burlington Coat Factory.”
This just feels wrong.
“As an American doctor who takes Medicare, I am not allowed to waive fees for procedures or charge a patient less than what our officially set rates are, even if they don’t have insurance. I’m also not allowed to ask a doctor from a different practice what a certain insurance company pays them for a service, as this has been deemed ‘anti-trust.'”
