Why I Hope to Die at 75

by Ezekial Emanuel

Dr. Emanuel is an academic physician and bioethicist.  He states “I am sure of my position.”  This is a longish article in The Atlantic magazine.  It’s interesting with lots of factoids.

In 1905, before he left Hopkins for Oxford, William Osler gave a speech in which he, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, suggested that men should be euthanized at around age 60.  “Osler, who had a well-developed humorous side to his character, was in his mid-fifties when he gave the speech and in it he mentioned Anthony Trollope's The Fixed Period (1882), which envisaged a college where men retired at 67 and after a contemplative period of a year were "peacefully extinguished" by chloroform. Osler claimed that, "the effective, moving, vitalizing work of the world is done between the ages of twenty-five and forty" and it was downhill from then on. Osler's speech was covered by the popular press which headlined their reports with "Osler recommends chloroform at sixty". The concept of mandatory euthanasia for humans after a "fixed period" (often 60 years) became a recurring theme in 20th century imaginative literature.  His talk was a great source of embarrassment for Osler.

Dr. Emanuel’s Atlantic Monthly article is in this tradition, but is unlikely to generate as much ire as Osler’s Fixed Period” lecture.  “Why I Hope to Die at 75” is somewhat playful and should generate a lively discussion.