  The right to ethical independence may be thought to follow from something even more fundamental—the equal moral status of citizens. State perfectionist measures, whether coercive or not, that aim to encourage some pursuits and discourage others on the grounds that they have greater ethical value offends this status by presuming that some citizens are not fully capable of forming, pursuing and revising a conception of the good (Quong 2011, 101–106). This denial of equal moral status explains why such measures send an insulting message, one that is objectionable over and above any impact it has on the autonomy of citizens.