From: T
Sent: Sunday, November 24, 2019 6:48 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Property Rights, the Argument for Privatization… Do we have a right to die?

Dear Walter,

I am currently reading your new book, “Property Rights, The Argument for Privatization”. It is a very well written and thought provoking book. On page 23 you write about “rights”. I remember William O. Douglas wrote, “The right to be let alone is indeed the beginning of all freedom.”  And Louis Brandeis wrote, “They: The makers of the Constitution: conferred, as against the government, the right to be let alone — the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men.” Didn’t someone else once write, “The only right we have is to be left alone”?

Nowadays we are supposed to have rights to health care, education, a home, clothing, food. We are promised these “rights” by politicians looking for our votes. I remember the very odd movie “Zardoz” starring Sean Connery. Connery is an “exterminator”. He kills the gods who live forever. (Oh, to be 22 again watching this crazy film.)

My question is this, “Do we have a right to die?” Suicide is outlawed by governments. Why? Legalized murder, war, is okay, but humans aren’t allowed to kill themselves. What if in the near future we live in a world like Zardoz where people can live forever? Do we have the right to die or does the government decide if we are born and when? And if we die and when?

Life is messy. But birth and death can be even messier. Do we have any rights in any of it? Or do we have the right to be left alone?

Thanks for writing the book. I am enjoying it. T

From: Walter Block <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, November 24, 2019 5:32 PM
To: T
Subject: RE: Property Rights, the Argument for Privatization… Do we have a right to die?

Dear T:

Thanks for your kind comments about this book: Block, Walter E. 2019. Property Rights: The Argument for Privatization. Palgrave Macmillan; https://www.palgrave.com/in/book/9783030283520

We libertarians support negative rights (the right not to be murdered, raped, kidnapped, stolen from). These rights require that others not invade us. We libertarians do not support so called positive rights, housing, food, etc., since these “rights” require that the property of other people be stolen from them and given to us.

This sounds a bit off-key; I admit it. We’re supposed to be “positive,” correct, not “negative.” Yet, in this case I fear we libertarians must avoid this folk wisdom.

If we own our own bodies, and, libertarians believe that we do, then we may certainly end them, if we wish. Laws prohibiting suicide are illicit.

Best regards,

Walter

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