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Knowing When to Say Goodbye: Final Exit and Suicide in the Elderly
Author(s) -
Lerner Barron H.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
suicide and life‐threatening behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.544
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1943-278X
pISSN - 0363-0234
DOI - 10.1111/j.1943-278x.1995.tb00243.x
Subject(s) - context (archaeology) , bioethics , terminally ill , psychology , palliative care , medicine , history , law , nursing , political science , archaeology
The publication of Derek Humphry's Final Exit in 1991 caused a large uproar. Although designed as a suicide manual for terminally ill persons, there has been considerable fear that the book's methods might be used by others, such as nonterminal elderly individuals who have made a “rational” decision to end their lives. This piece, a short story about an elderly couple that commits double suicide, explores rational suicide by using fiction, as opposed to a standard bioethical approach. Fiction does not provide answers, but rather highlights the ambiguities surrounding elder suicide, and reminds us to evaluate this issue in the context of individual life experiences.