March 2021
Facing Death
Suicide as last emancipation?
by Jean-Pierre Wils
Assisted suicide has been the subject of much passionate debate in many societies. The philosopher and theologian Jean-Pierre Wils does not deny autonomy, but asks – on the basis of his profound historical and ethical knowledge – about the social consequences. Does the right to assisted suicide not in the long run lead to the obligation to decide for or against it? And does not the pressure towards a supposedly reasonable decision increase, as soon as the causation of one‘s own death is seen as a final act of self-realisation and emancipation, or even commended as such? Wils makes a strong plea for the debate to be held in a broader context, to remove our finiteness from cultural amnesia – and in doing so, lays the foundation for a contemporary discussion on assisted suicide.
