The world is founded on a tangled array of rules and laws, the majority of which are designed to watch out for us and keep society functioning. And for each reasonable rule, there are quirky gaps in the law that make you question whether the justice system and common sense ever sat down for a meeting. Some of these aren’t just odd oversights – they’re harmful practices that are still legal.
It’s disturbing to realize that most of these painful, exploitative, or even systemically unfair acts are still legal. That disconnect between what the law allows and what intuitively seems right makes us question the roots of our systems of law.
This blog takes a look at 14 stunning examples of legally allowed but seemingly unfair, indecent, and overall human dignity-defying activities.
1. Conversion Therapy
Conversion therapy a so-called “treatment” for changing a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity remains legal in much of the world. Even with overwhelming medical evidence that it fails and actually sends people into active harm, it persists.
Victims of it generally suffer severe emotional trauma and long-term psychological scarring. Apart from the harm to the person, its legal existence fosters stigma against LGBTQ+ communities. Banning conversion therapy is not just a question of policy reform; it’s about protecting vulnerable people from exploitation and protecting their right to be who they are.
2. Child Marriage
In far too many countries, child marriage remains legal. It typically involves girls being compelled to get married at an age when they should be learning, not wedded. It robs them of childhood, hinders their potential, and deprives them of agency.
The effects are disastrous: heightened vulnerability to abuse, foreclosed educational horizons, and cyclical poverty and discrimination over generations. Stopping child marriage all over the world isn’t a matter of statutory change; it’s about providing all children with the hope of growing up, learning, and deciding their own lives.
3. Payday Loans with Predatory Interest Rates
Payday loans are marketed as quick solutions to financial emergencies. In actuality, they trap individuals in spirals of debt because of insanely high interest rates.
Low-income groups are disproportionately affected by such loans, with the lenders finding themselves buried beneath a heap of debt that spirals out of control. Payday loans serve to make financial woes worse instead of bringing relief. Harsher controls need to be enforced in order to end such usurious practices and to protect people from exploitation through economic means.
4. Gerrymandering
Gerrymandering manipulating voting district boundaries for the benefit of one political party or another is science fiction, but it’s all too real and still legal.
By allowing politicians to essentially select their constituents, gerrymandering undermines the very foundations of democracy. It dilutes the significance of every vote and makes the majority feel that their vote will not count. Without meaningful reforms, this practice will continue to erode public trust in elections.
5. Animal Cruelty in Factory Farming
Most of the brutal methods of factory farming are still entirely legal in spite of growing concern about animal welfare. The animals are normally stuffed into cramped enclosures, deprived of natural behavior, and treated cruelly.
The problem extends beyond animal cruelty. Factory farming is a leading cause of environmental degradation, global warming, and water pollution. Something needs to be done to improve controls and change to more environmentally friendly methods in order to reduce both animal cruelty and damage to the environment.
6. Ticket Scalping
We’ve all been there: tickets for a concert or game sell out in minutes, only to pop up online at outrageous prices. That’s ticket scalping and in many places, it’s perfectly legal.
This strategy over-excludes genuine fans while rewarding those who stand to gain from artificially inflated resale prices. It renders entertainment an expensive luxury product for the affluent rather than something everyone can enjoy. More stringent consumer protections and more intense resale regulations could restore equilibrium.
7. Lobbying and Campaign Finance Loopholes
Money talks loudly in politics, and under current lobbying and campaign finance laws, it tends to shout over the voices of the average citizens. Wealthy individuals and corporations can pour massive amounts of cash into influencing policymakers with gains that ordinary folk do not possess.
The result? Policies that serve the interests of wealthy elites while others are left behind. Without stronger checks and more transparency, democracy might turn into a pay-to-play regime where power attracts money.
8. Compelling Women to Bear Children
In other regions of the world, laws compel women to carry on pregnancies that they do not wish. This removes their right to choose what happens to their own bodies and health, imposing ghastly physical, emotional, and psychological consequences.
When lawmakers with no medical experience enact bills affecting such personal choices, what one gets are science- and compassion-less policies. To preserve dignity, health, and human rights, reproductive autonomy is necessary.
9. Child Beauty Pageants
While often depicted as harmless entertainment, child beauty pageants present grave ethical concerns. They compel children to be placed in positions where appearance and competition are more highly valued than usual childhood progress.
They can potentially foster unhealthy body image issues and expose children to public criticism they are not emotionally equipped to deal with. Essentially, they commodity childhood in nasty forms. Such legality must be taken very seriously reevaluated.
10. Politicians Making Medical Decisions
It’s downright discouraging that politicians many of whom have minimal medical background get to pass laws that regulate healthcare decisions. From reproductive services to vaccinations, politics all too often replaces science and doctor-patient relationships.
When politics controls medicine, public faith erodes and health results worsen. More healthy boundaries are needed to keep politics out of individual healthcare and ensure that decisions are based on science rather than politics.
11. Paparazzi Harassment
The culture of paparazzi itself is legal but often at the brink of harassment. Photography in public areas is acceptable, but relentlessly following celebrities transcends ethics.
Aside from invasion of privacy, these aggressive actions endanger real safety, especially for children and families. The fragile equilibrium between press liberty and an individual’s right to privacy is long past due to be reevaluated.
12. Predatory Practices in the U.S. Healthcare System
The U.S. healthcare system is notorious for practices that are legal but hurt patients. A glaring example is the lack of price transparency. Patients are exposed to medical procedures or tests without knowing the cost until receiving a bill a foolish arrangement for something as essential as healthcare.
Add in exorbitant co-pays and unpredictable insurance coverage, and many patients end up owing huge medical bills. These practices are not against the law, but they prioritize profit over health, putting millions in harm’s way during moments of crisis.
13. Selling Wild Animals as Pets
The sale of wild animals as pets is legal in the majority of the world, and the implications are catastrophic. The parrot to the hermit crab, thousands of species of animals are uprooted from their habitats, erasing biodiversity and bringing about ecological imbalance.
Beyond the environmental cost, confining wild animals typically dooms them to poor living conditions and suffering. International policies need to be tightened to keep this trade from happening and to protect wildlife and ecosystems.
14. Politicians Lying to Voters
One of the most shocking legal loopholes: politicians lie to voters with nearly no penalty. Business fraud can land you in the slammer, but political mendacity is fine, apparently.
This erodes public confidence and subjects the voters to manipulation. The moment false assurances and blatant lies are the order of the day, then democracy becomes endangered. Leaders being accountable to truth should be a cornerstone of equitable governance.
