The Right to Disappear 

Wendy McElroy has a though provoking column on FoxNews.com about the so called "Run Away Bride". I say this because what she says toward the end mirrors my initial reaction to the whole story:

Another under-discussed but newsworthy element: Wilbanks allegedly made false statements to the New
Mexico police (and later the Georgia authorities), claiming she was kidnapped by an Hispanic man and a woman. That allegation has been widely broadcast, and perhaps she will be prosecuted. But her mental instability makes that prospect unlikely and the absence of criminal intent is a problem.

What is unmentioned by the media, however, is the fact that until she made those statements -- an act that occurred at the tail end of the police investigation -- Wilbanks had done nothing wrong in a legal sense.

The foregoing statement is not an expression of sympathy. As far as I am concerned, Wilbanks should be disowned by her parents, shunned by friends, and bitten by the family dog.

But she is a free human being. Except for the purpose of fraud or other crime, she has a legal right to disappear, to run out on a wedding. The alternative is to require people to inform authorities about their whereabouts and movements, as they were required to do in the Soviet Union.

So until the very end of the investigation when she lied and called the police about being kidnapped... she simply disappeared. The majority of time and effort spent looking for her was simply because she couldn't be found... not because she lied, or committed fraud. When I first heard about the whole story... the following came to mind:

1. She was irresponsible for just leaving like that.
   
2. She was stupid and broke the law for lying to the cops about being kidnapped.
   
3. She had every right to run away.

I want to be clear on this. Yet the question needs to be asked. Do you have the right to simply disappear?

I'm not saying its the smart thing to do, or that its responsible, or that it doesn't put a terrible burden on your family. But so what? Had she not called the police and made false accusations of being kidnapped, and was instead found somewhere in New Mexico lying by a pool relaxing... would she be in trouble? Would she be liable for the police expense to find her? What if her fiance was abusive... and she decided to just cut and run so as not to deal with him any more, and she was found by the pool? Would the police be required to inform her fiance where they found her?

What if instead of calling the police at the tail end of this fiasco and claiming she'd been kidnapped, she instead called them and said "I'm fine. Please stop looking for me."? What would be the public response to that? Would their be some public outrage? After all... it was really the media who blew this into a huge story, not her. She simply disappeared... that is until she was stupid and claimed she was kidnapped.

I'm not saying she was smart... but not being smart isn't illegal. Imagine the trouble we'd be in if it were.