Assisted Suicide For Social Suffering

Once legalized for the terminally ill, eligibility can expand to cover non‑medical distress like loneliness or inadequate services. The article cites Canada allowing thousands of deaths for isolation or lack of palliative/disability support and Oregon’s non‑medical rationale trends. — If assisted suicide drifts toward solving social problems with death, it forces a re‑examination of end‑of‑life ethics, disability policy, and suicide prevention across health and legal systems.

Sources

How I Changed My Mind on Assisted Suicide

Charles Murray 2026.01.09 78% relevant

Murray’s essay speaks directly into the topic: he endorses the carefully limited statutory approach (competence proof, <6 months terminal, self‑administration) yet personally rejects using it—this maps onto the existing idea that legalization debates hinge on scope, safeguards, and the risk of drift toward non‑medical uses (social suffering). His credibility as an elder public intellectual makes his nuance relevant to the larger policy narrative already tracked under that idea.

The Horrors of Assisted Suicide

Robert J. Bellafiore 2025.10.09 100% relevant

Canada’s reported 2,264 MAID deaths for loneliness and 196 due to lack of disability support; Oregon’s 'top reasons' for MAID beyond pain control as noted in the article.