Michael Bloomberg, the Republican, but reasonably decent, mayor of New York City, has been aggressive in promoting healthful lifestyles and a healthier public environment in the City, especially through the use of the law-making and regulatory powers of government to prohibit or discourage harmful practices. Recently he spoke to a national convention on public health, advocating the use of the law to its maximal extent to promote the same goals nationwide.There is no doubt some of his initiatives here in New York have been outstandingly beneficial - none more so than the smoking ban in restaurants and bars. But each such policy raises the question of the limits of and justification for government intrusion into private behavior, especially on the frankly paternalistic grounds of improving the citizen’s own health.

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