The Right to Self-Harm: Legal Issues Concerning Involuntary Psychiatric Commitment for Self-Injury By

The concept of liberty is frequently invoked when discussing rights in the United States, both individual and constitutional. Less often brought up, however, is what exactly constitutes liberty. Is it delineated in the Constitution? Do we as humans possess some innate sense of what liberty is and what our rights are? No clear consensus has yet emerged. The dictionary definition states that liberty is “the freedom from control, interference, obligation, restriction, hampering conditions, etc.; the power or right of doing, thinking, speaking, etc., according to choice...[and] freedom from captivity, confinement, or physical restraint.” Freedom from coercion is also implicit in the idea of liberty. However, there is much more involved in liberty than this simple definition suggests.