by Jonathan Huie

Created on: May 07, 2009

In truth, we only have the rights granted by our government, so the question is actually, "Should suicide be a personal right?" Even that question is, in a sense, not the right question. It is only a small part of the real question, which is whether each of us should have the right to control our own body. To me, it is clear that no one should have the authority to tell me what I can and can not do with my body. If I choose to get a tattoo, consume an unproven cancer cure, eat generously, stop eating, or consume a substance that will surely cause my death, that should be my decision and not the government's.

I suppose that an argument could be made that our bodies belong to the government, and therefore we don't have the right to destroy government property. That argument might be expressed under a communist government, but I have never heard that particular argument used in America. The arguments that I do hear for making suicide illegal all have a basis in religion. The American Bill of Rights prohibits mixing religion into government, yet many continue to use purely religious arguments for prohibiting suicide and other acts that are performed by one person and impact only that person, such as using unlicensed medical treatments.

The word people tend to use is "morality." Morality is exclusively a religious concept. A government establishes what is legal and what is illegal. Those are the only two distinctions. There is no legal meaning to the word "morality."

As a legally competent adult, you should get to make all the decisions regarding your body, and I should get to make all the decisions about my body. That way everybody always wins. Do you really want me, to the extent that I might represent a voting majority, making decisions about your body? If not, leave my body alone, and don't insist upon making my decisions for me. No one has any more right to tell me that I must live than I have to tell them that they must die.

Telling other people how they should live has always had a bad ending throughout history, and it's still a major cause of conflict and suffering. Sometimes individuals and countries attempt to control others out of greed, fear, and anger, but often the motivation is noble.

The problem with wanting the best for another person is that what's "best" is a personal opinion. The government holds a duty to prevent its citizens from harming each other, but it has no business attempting to "protect" its competent adult citizens from themselves.

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