Er det at blive gammel tilstrækkelig årsag til dødshjælp?
A proposal put forth in the Dutch Parliament suggests that anyone over the age of 75 should have a legally guaranteed right to physician-assisted suicide if they wish to die, unless the wish is the result of a mental illness. This chapter discusses three questions about the relationship between age and entitlement to assisted dying: 1) are there good reasons to introduce a purely age-determined criterion for a right to assisted dying; 2) would such an age criterion lead to problematic discrimination against the elderly, or alternatively to discrimination against people who are too young to meet the criterion; and 3) what is the relationship between an age criterion and a postulated duty to choose assisted dying in specific situations. The discussion of these three issues shows that there are no good reasons for introducing an age criterion for the right to die, that an age criterion is potentially discriminatory to both the elderly and the young, and that introducing an age criterion could lead to problematic pressure against vulnerable elderly people.