reprinted from September 10, 2003

  Does that seem like a silly question? Who else could own your life? If someone else owned your life, wouldn't that make you a slave?

Individuals certainly do "spend" their lives differently. The contrasts are apparent in our society; from hard-working individuals driven to succeed, acquire wealth, power, status, or fame, to others who choose to lead a minimalist "homeless" existence, and all sorts of lifestyles between those extremes.

I've noticed that almost no matter who you ask, most people have a pretty clear idea of how they want to live their life. They'll tell you what's important to them, what isn't... what they'll do and what they absolutely won't do. Many are quite adamant that they are living just the way they want to, or they're on the path to living that way.

If your life belongs to you and nobody else, doesn't it follow that you have the right to do with it what you want, as long as you don't violate the rights of anyone else?

Let's make the question more difficult:
 
Let's talk about the right to die.

If you own your life, doesn't it follow that you should be the one, and only one, to decide when your life should end? You know more about the quality of your life than anyone else. You are the expert concerning how much you value living longer. You are in a better position to evaluate the pros and cons of your continuing to live versus ending your life. Nobody else can judge how much pleasure you feel, or how much pain you suffer. They can guess, but only you can know. You can explain to them, but they'll never know what it feels like to be you. Nobody else can really evaluate your future options better than you.

Don't most people agree? Perhaps so.
 
More than 29,000 Americans ended their own lives in 2000. 80% of them were men, and 72% were white men. Over half did it using firearms. More Americans kill themselves than are killed by others.

But... here's the shocker... there are approximately 734,000 suicide attempts each year... 25 attempts for every death by suicide. Among young people there are between 100 and 200 attempts per suicide. 5 million living Americans (estimate) have attempted to kill themselves. Even though only 20% of suicides are women, they make 3 attempts for each male attempt. (2000 Official Final Statistics)

Given how many people have actually attempted suicide, it would seem pretty clear that a lot of people believe the choice is theirs to make.

Death is a complex subject. It would be wonderful if we could eliminate all the conditions that cause people to try to take their own lives, but there are so many reasons, so many conditions, that suicide is bound to be with us forever. We are, after all, mortal beings, so suicide is merely a controlled, early death... it's a choice to end life now, rather than continuing living until a later time.

We complicate the subject immensely with religious beliefs prohibiting suicide, by a general reluctance to  discuss death openly, and by laws that complicate the circumstances around suicide.

In short, because of societal attitudes, we condemn thousands to make a truly terrible choice: Continue to live a life that is no longer acceptable, or commit suicide using crude and brutal means, traumatizing those we leave behind.

We all know that there are much better choices... many quiet, painless, controlled ways to bring about death... ways that would allow the individual to have a death with dignity... a death on their own terms.

If our society, and our laws, fully accepted each individuals right to die as they choose, it would take an enormous burden from all of us. We have so many taboos about death that we transform an inevitable occurrence into a grievous tragedy. We often condemn aging people to lingering, unfulfilling existence by refusing to confront the truth. We often force individuals we love to face death alone because we are afraid to face it with them.

If we faced our own fears, and made it acceptable and legal for physicians to assist us in dying, death could become the normal part of life that it should be.

My own personal preference is, I suspect, similar to that of many people. I would choose to end my life when I can no longer take care of myself. I would also choose to end it when living seems worse, to me, than dying. That's my standard for my life. I want the right to make that choice regardless of what others think or want. I would like to have the right to enlist, or hire, the aid of others who can give me control of my own death. I'm not opposed to others trying to dissuade me, as long as they accept my decision as final.

I have a right to do with my life as I choose... and yes... I have a right to make a decision others view as stupid.

I'm proud to tell you that the Libertarian Party platform contains the following statement:

We advocate the repeal of all laws interfering with the right to commit suicide as infringements of the ultimate right of an individual to his or her own life.

Getting such laws out of our way is an important step, but they're not the only things standing in the way. We need to discuss death with each other. Each of us needs to think about our own death and the circumstances under which it might occur, and decide to exercise some control over it. Modern science can continue "life" far beyond what most of us would consider acceptable. We cannot expect doctors to make our decisions for us, nor should we allow it. The responsibility for your life is yours, as mine is for me.