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13 - ‘Half in Love with Easeful Death’: Rational Suicide and the Elderly

from Part II - Ageing and Morality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 August 2022

By
L. W. Sumner
Edited by
C. S. Wareham
C. S. Wareham
Affiliation:
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
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Summary

This paper explores four related questions: (1) whether, and when, suicide might be rational for the elderly; (2) whether it can be ethical for a second party to assist in a rational suicide; (3) whether medical practitioners, in particular, can reasonably be expected to provide this assistance; and (4) whether jurisdictions that permit legal access to a medically assisted death should expand their eligibility criteria to accommodate those who are ‘tired of life’.

Keywords

Suicidethe elderlyend of lifemedical assistance in dying
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of the Ethics of Ageing , pp. 172 - 194
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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