Introduction

In his book The World Until Yesterday the American geographer, historian, anthropologist and ornithologist Jared Diamond envisions societies in which children should, and in certain circumstances do, neglect, abandon or kill their parents (Diamond 2012, p. 214). In his opinion, this happens in two kinds of society: among nomadic hunter gatherers who must move camp from time to time in order to maintain their supply of food, and in arctic and desert regions where severe food shortages occur periodically. In both situations, we see scarce resources and the perceived burden of elderly parents to society as the motivating factors. Furthermore, Diamond identifies five different ways of killing, arranging them in a sequence of increasingly direct action starting from the most passive method to the most active (Diamond 2012, pp. 215–217). The most passive approach is neglect (giving little food, ignoring needs, etc.), which is something akin to passive euthanasia (not necessarily voluntary). The second approach is to intentionally abandon an old or sick person or to bring an old person to the forest and leave them to walk off and never be seen again—this could be qualified as active euthanasia (either voluntary or not). The third method involves an old person choosing or being encouraged to commit suicide, for example by “jumping off a cliff, going out to sea, or seeking death in battle,” which can be qualified as assisted suicide.