By Mark David Blum, Esq.

Actually, I want to die. Whether I want to or not; it is irrelevant. Eventually I will die anyway. When how what where, all the important details, remain unknown to me. But I want to die. No, I am not homicidal nor suicidal and you can put away your ‘niner’ talk. Whether I want to die is my right, is it not? How I do so may bring me into your sphere of concern.

Do I have a right to die? Your nation’s constitution doesn’t say I do. If you adhere to the Scalia School of Constitutional Misinterpretation, then you have to declare “no”. Their fundamental platform is that the only rights I have are those delegated to me via the founding documents or an act of Congress. I think it is called ‘Originalism’. More on that later. Still, I want to die but the government – my neighbor – wont let me.

I can use self help. Seriously, if I opt to off myself and succeed, nobody is going to throw my carcass in jail. No lockdown at CPEP. Its not against the law for me to take my own life. How could it be illegal? Who gets punished? How? Obviously those who survive me will scorn me. Taking my own life is seen as a big no-no. There is great social pressure on me to not choose to die and set-asides of basic freedoms and liberties to enable others to intervene and stop me. Both the Godly and Godless insist I live. Everybody wants me to live; they insist upon it.

But I don’t want to live. Am bored. Am tired. Am annoyed. For whatever reason or rationale, even if irrational and ill conceived, I want to die. Can I? Yes I can.

“May I?” becomes the real question. May I die? It appears I need permission. I do not have permission, do I Mister Justice Scalia? The Constitution of the United States does not say I have a right, be it fundamental or at all, to “life”. “Life” is not an issue to our Founders until the Fifth Amendment and even there, they just said “life” can be taken from you by the government by some magical potion called “due process”. The Constitution does not say anywhere that I have a right to life. Trust me, it says even less about my right to die. Wait, do I have one – a right to die? I think I do.

Yeah yeah yeah, I have heard the shrill nighttime call of the self proclaimed “right to life” folks. To arms go they against the forces of evil, “choicers”. Query I as I ask, from where do people say I have a right to life? There is simply no constitutional right to life and there is no constitutional right to die.

Do you know what that means? Your life and your death are not yours. Both are inevitable by your presence yet we have no such right.

OK, so Thomas Jefferson in his hemp stained famed Declaration of War and Demand for Violent Overthrow of the Government,… sorry, the Declaration of Independence … declared “inalienable” this thing called a right to life. Bold words in 1776. I may be an old highschool drop out trapped in the crushing polar vortex in a small burb in Upstate New York, but I know enough to believe that the word “inalienable” means that my life is not something I can give up or something that can be taken away from me. Eleven years later, our Founding government had already changed the rules. They stripped away the inalienable part; giving themselves the right to take away my life thus making it no longer “inalienable” in these here United States.

Thus, life is not mandatory. I really do want to die. It is my life, is it not? If so, then am I not free to live and end my life my own way on my own terms? I know you have to agree because in the back of your mind, you could be me one day. You may want someone to stop you. In the end, however, who makes the decision – you or a third person?

What happens if I need help because I am unable to do it myself? ?Will you help me? Where is your morality now and why is it interfering with my rights to live and die?