What’s a right? Where do they come from? I believe rights are conferred by society. They aren’t natural. They only exist if we all agree that we want to guarantee everyone in our group whatever it is that we think we should all have, purely as a consequence of living in this society.
So, does society have an interest in preventing individuals from taking their own lives should the impulse hit? Clearly, the answer is yes. Society and individuals in society stand to lose a lot, and experience severe consequences when people take their own lives. I think society is more interested in protecting the whole from negative circumstances than they are for protecting an individual’s right to check out permanently.
So, no. There is no right to die because we, as a society, don’t want to confer that right on all of us. Or even, any of us. Sometimes we do think of exceptions—people who are in relentless pain that will never end; where all hope has been lost. Even then, I think we have hope. Or we can’t face the idea of giving up.
I think we believe that it’s up to nature to kill us; not ourselves. We can hasten death along by eating poorly, or engaging in unhealthy habits, but we can’t actually wield the sword that is the means of our own death. Or rather, we don’t want people to kill themselves, so we don’t confer that right. Obviously, people can take things into their own hands, and try to kill themselves whenever they want. But assisting them is not a protected act, since we don’t believe, as a society, that people should off themselves. No matter what.