While I believe medical assistance in dying is morally wrong and should not be legalized, I  confess that I am pessimistic about winning this fight legally and culturally. Rather, I expect a progressive conception of bodily autonomy to win the day, in keeping with the general trajectory of law regarding the rights to abortion, medical interventions to support transgender identification, and recreational drug use. Add to that trajectory the sobering fact of a low birthrate, which will result in labor shortages in a few decades, especially in professions like elder care. Medical assistance in dying might be used to relieve an overburdened healthcare system. My guess is that we will hear more and more of assisted death, not only as an act of compassion for the suffering, but as a courageous act of social and ecological responsibility by older generations who care about younger generations.

As laws permitting medically assisted death advance, how will we learn to accept diminishment rather than kill ourselves?