Derrida’s <i>The Beast & the Sovereign</i>, volume I, explores the contradictory appearance of animals in political discourse. Sometimes, as he points out, political man and the sovereign state appear in the form of an animal and, at other times, as superior to animals of which he is the master. In...

This paper addresses the “right to die” through the lens of Derrida’s <i>The Beast and the Sovereign, Volume One</i>. Specifically focusing on the case of Tony Nicklinson <i>v.</i> Ministry of Justice, 2012, the essay posits two things. First, Derrida’s insight helps us understand how a “fear of...