Holding one’s life as an ultimate value is a matter of choice: man does not automatically value his own life, and there is no such thing as a duty or categorical imperative obligating one to live.But this does not make morality subjective or arbitrary. For fundamentally, one’s choice is to live, and hence to pursue the values one’s life requires, or not to live, and hence to have no values, take no actions, and perish.Life or death is man’s only fundamental alternative. To live is his basic act of choice. If he chooses to live, a rational ethics will tell him what principles of action are required to implement his choice. If he does not choose to live, nature will take its course.— Ayn Rand
