Ernest van den Haag

Ernest van den Haag argues in the following viewpoint that individuals—as the owners of their own bodies—have the right to determine whether or not to end their lives through suicide. Moreover, van den Haag maintains, no one has the right to compel someone to live against his or her will. Van den Haag is a psychoanalyst, the John M. Olin Professor Emeritus of Jurisprudence and Public Policy at Fordham University in Bronx, New York, and a scholar at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative public policy think tank in Washington, D.C.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. In van den Haag’s opinion, why should physicians be excluded from an individual’s decision to commit suicide?
2. What is odd about society’s attitude toward the disabled who...