  In response, perfectionists can argue that the purported right to ethical independence is an exaggeration of an important, but more modest truth. If autonomy is a perfectionist good, and if it is a central component in a well lived life, then persons have rights to make important life-shaping decisions that governments must respect. By acknowledging and honoring these rights, governments treat their citizens not as children, but as independent moral agents. However, these rights do not follow from, or add up to, a general right of ethical independence, one that rules out all governmental efforts to promote the good.