Mary,
As a libertarian in this matter, I want to exercise my right to exit this world as I choose, including suicide, since the first choice–to be born–was not up to me. Liberty means being the absolute master of your own destiny, once you are alive. There’s nothing, absolutely nothing, in the US Constitution preventing suicide or assisted suicide. I see it as a First Amendment right, a Fourth Amemdment right, a Tenth Amedment right, even a Thirteenth Amendment right, a Fourteenth Amendment right, which says:
1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
That is, no US federal or state law can make any law abridging my freedom to dispose of my own life as I choose. None. The Constitution only states the State cannot deprive me of my life and liberty–which means, roughly, that you can’t send me to the gulag or to the gallows without due process. In so doing, it acknowledges the State can’t deprive me of the liberty to choose my own demise.
