Whose Life? Whose Body? Sovereignty and the Early Modern Subject in Radicati's Philosophical Dissertation upon Death

This essay examines the contemporary debate on suicide and euthanasia through a controversial pamphlet written in London in 1732 by the Italian philosopher, Alberto Radicati di Passerano. In Radicati's Philosophical Dissertation upon Death, suicide is defended as an act of individual freedom against royal and religious attempts to control citizen's self-determination. By drawing from Montesquieu and the English deists, and connecting with the ancient genre of the care of the self, Radicati advocates the sovereignty of the self over traditional sovereign power. Foucault and Agamben provide the theoretical lens to this reading, particularly in their discussion of early modern power over the body of the individual and the body of the population. The following reading examines the shift from mercantilist to industrial capitalism that witnessed an increase in suicide rates all over England, where Radicati was writing at the time.