In theory, libertarian principles are very beautiful. Every person possesses self-ownership, can dispose of themselves, set goals, choose means, negotiate, and so on. And then you are shown a helpless infant in swaddling clothes and told: this is a human! Moreover, then you are shown an ultrasound photo of an embryo, and they continue to insist: here he is, a human! Then you see an elderly person with Alzheimer’s who has regressed to childhood, and that too is a human! You are also asked to consider as a human someone who demonstrates intellectual insignificance after a blow to the head, as a result of encephalitis, some congenital pathology, someone dead drunk or raised by wild animals. But that is only half the trouble. It is past midnight, you lie down in your cozy little bed, fall asleep — and you become just as helpless and lacking in legal capacity as that very infant, and what grounds do you have at that time to be considered the proud possessor of the name of a human, with all its self-ownership?

Adding two and two, a person might hastily get twenty-two, and as a result agree to an unfavorable deal. A second later, he corrects the error in his calculations and demands the cancellation of the deal. And what remains after that of the principle stating that in the market every participant gets rid of what is less valuable to them and acquires what is more valuable? What use is this principle if a second later a person changes their mind and demands that everything be rolled back?

To further exacerbate our confusion, let us recall, for example, various psychiatric phenomena, such as dissociative identity disorder. A person behaves as one personality, and then as another, who has no clue about the actions of the first personality. Can one speak of full legal capacity for each of such sub-personalities? Can the responsibility of one be separated from the responsibility of another? And if so, what would stop any malicious actor from simulating such a split of consciousness? And why limit the consideration to only clinical cases, if a person can easily create a dozen virtual personas online with their own character, appearance, history, habits, and other characteristics? One of such virtual personalities is even writing a book about ancap right now.