Freedom and Self-Ownership

The principle that each person is his own property occupies an almost axiomatic status in right-wing liberal thought as well as in some egalitarian theories. I reject any, full or partial, notion of property with respect to oneself by showing that any appeal and any justifiability which may be associated with self-ownership can 'at most' serve to ground rights which are demonstrably nonproperty rights. As a contrast to self ownership, I introduce the nonproprietarian notion of original freedom. I compare the two with respect to the control, income, and transfer aspects of ownership and suggest that original freedom is the more intuitively acceptable.