Final Word from Monday, July 28, 2025

At its core, euthanasia is a libertarian issue. Murray Rothbard (1926-1995), a leading U.S. libertarian, wrote in The Ethics of Liberty in 1982 that "100-percent self-ownership for every man is the only viable political ethic for mankind." To libertarians, a test of whether we are free is whether we own our own bodies. In an article in July 1991, though, Rothbard wrote that left-liberals were turning the "right to die" into the "right to kill," because they were pushing assisted suicide or euthanasia without clear consent of the person in question. Journalist Louise Perry wrote similarly in the New York Times last week and warned that assisted suicide risks being seen by governments with aging societies as a solution to the financial problems associated with overloaded medical and pension systems. STAN, which certainly isn't a libertarian party, has included euthanasia in its "Good Election Program." For now, at least, it lists "dignified departure from life as a free choice" as a human-rights issue, not a pension solution. [ Czech Republic suicide duty obligation progressive death ]