Youth in Asia

Yesterday I had a conversation with my 83 year old Grandmother who was wondering whether or not there was any worth in her preparing a will. We, as a family, have recently broached the subject of moving into a retirement villiage but Nan will have none of it. This is a woman who, when she turned 81, asked me if I would take her shopping for some Anti-Ageing skin care as she thought "it was time she starting looking after her skin".

This got me thinking about my own mortality. When I was a little girl I firmly beleived that by my old age there would be a pill to see me to 110. It seems to me that medical science is progressing so quickly I have a good shot at reaching 140.

My imagination took me further. What will happen when medical science can keep almost anyone alive indefinitely, albeit looking like a peach that has been left in the sun for a month? Isn’t it inevitable that assisted suicide will be legal?

There’s no way the global economic system can keep several billion people alive over the age of 100. And if we assume most of those people can vote, and most of them will want at least the option of checking out early, then legalised assisted suicide is a near certainty.

The people over a hundred will want it, and the young people who wish the old people were dead so it would free up resources will want it too. There’s your majority right there. In the short term, assisted suicide only needs to be legal in one country that has a good airport. Just fly in, let the doctor kill you, and go home in an urn.

Is it inevitable?