Can a person forfeit his or her right to life?

[muon2]

I see two issues convoluted in the posts here. One is the basic philosophical question about the right to life. The second is whether the limitations of human justice prevent a nation from considering forfeiture of the right to life as a punishment.

If I start with the unalienable rights of the Declaration of Independence I see a natural hierarchy that is reflected in criminal justice. For the least of crimes that are penalized, a person is fined, so that they lose their right to pursuit of happiness as reflected in that loss of wealth. For more severe crimes comes a loss of liberty as a person is penalized by incarceration. The natural extension is for the most severe crimes to be penalized by loss of life.

Note that all three rights are listed as unalienable, and no one is arguing that one cannot lose the right to liberty or pursuit of happiness as punishment for a crime. One could make a case that these punishments are also sometimes delivered without fairness in our system, yet that does not mean those rights cannot be forfeited. By the same token the right to life must be viewed as one that can be forfeited in appropriate circumstances. How to make the imposition of such a penalty fair remains important, but in my mind is different from the question at hand.