History Main / WeWillHaveEuthanasiaInTheFuture

* Parodied in ''{{WesternAnimation/Futurama}}'' with suicide booths. In DVD Commentary, the writers and cast of ''{{WesternAnimation/Futurama}}'' did note that they played down the suicide booth angle as the series went on, as it had lost its novelty and served its purpose of showing how different the future was.

* In the ‘’Series/BlackMirror’’ episode “San Junipero” euthanasia of the terminally ill is legal, but in California it requires signatures from the patient, a doctor, and the next-of-kin. [[spoiler: And all shown cases have their brains uploaded to a simulated party town that they’d been allowed to visit for brief periods while still alive.]]

* The Mesans practice euthanasia regularly in ''Literature/HonorHarrington''; the euthanization of Dr. Herlander Simoes's adopted autistic vegetative daughter prompts him to [[spoiler:defect to Manticore and Haven, inform them of the fact that Mesa is plotting against them, and convince them to ally against Mesa. It also prompts Simoes's superior, Jack McBryde, to realize that the Mesans have gone too far from their original aims of transhumanism, and he destroys their records so thoroughly that Public Enemy #1 could have walked into the government building without being recognized.]]

* ''2BR02B'' by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. The Federal Bureau of Termination maintains PopulationControl with official gas chambers. When a man's wife gives birth to triplets and she's only allowed one child, he shoots himself and the inventor of the system, thus keeping the birth/death rate balanced.

* ''2BR02B'' by Creator/KurtVonnegutJr''. The Federal Bureau of Termination maintains PopulationControl with official gas chambers. When a man's wife gives birth to triplets, he decides to save their lives by shooting himself and the inventor of the system, thus keeping the birthrate balanced.

* ''2BR02B'' by Creator/KurtVonnegutJr'' is about this trope. The Federal Bureau of Termination keeps the population stable with official gas chambers.

* Happens in KurtVonnegut's short story "Welcome to the Monkey House", where it's encouraged by the government in order to bring down the human population to manageable levels (and those who administer the drug are [[MsFanservice voluptuous babes]] who dress in [[VaporWear transparent clothing]] to appeal to older men.)
** Also in another of Vonnegut's short stories, "2BR02B" (the zero is pronounced "naught".) Aging has been cured. To keep the population of the United States from exceeding forty million people, the law of the land says that before anybody new can be born, somebody must volunteer to die. Anybody who feels like dying arranges to do so by calling the phone number which is the title of the story and making an appointment. The protagonist of the story is distraught because his wife is about to have triplets, but he's only found one person willing to die. [[spoiler: He finally decides on the solution of [[MurderSuicide shooting two proponents of population control and then shooting himself]].]]

* Also appears in ''Film/ChildrenOfMen'' (where humanity has lost the ability to reproduce, causing widespread despair as people know they are going to die out) in the form of a highly successful pharmaceutical campaign selling what are essentially suicide pills. [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic Parallels to antidepressants]] are [[{{Anvilicious}} not entirely subtle]]. Then again, it does lead to a {{tearjerker}} moment [[spoiler:as MichaelCaine euthanizes his vegetative wife when he knows that he will be performing a HeroicSacrifice to cover the escape of the protagonists]]. One dark touch is that an advertisement mentions they're offered free to illegal immigrants, who are horribly persecuted in the film.

** And in ''Prelude to Literature/{{Foundation}}'', it is mentioned that there are no problems to legally commit suicide on Trantor.

* One of the earliest examples, if not ''the'' earliest, occurs in WinsorMcCay's ''ComicStrip/DreamOfTheRarebitFiend'': [[http://www.comicstriplibrary.org/display/952 see here]]. Needless to say given the title, it's AllJustADream.

[[caption-width-right:350:Unfortunately, there's no repeat business in the market.]]

* Suicide booths were featured in ''BattleAngelAlita''

* Utilized in ''FromTheNewWorld'' as a precaution against [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity potentially maladjusted individuals]] using their power to cause kill everyone.

* Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''Pebble In The Sky'' has the natives of a backwater, slowly dying future Earth holding to a custom of being put to death when they reach "The Sixty"-their sixtieth birthday. Anyone who is unable to work is also euthanized.
** And in Prelude to {{Foundation}}, it is mentioned that there are no problems to legally commit suicide on Trantor.

* In an episode of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', there is a society where everyone commits suicide at the age of 60. Originally to alleviate the strain of paying for keeping the elderly alive, it has become a way of honoring the individual and their family. Lwaxana Troi attempted to dissuade a man of this society from doing it, but he ultimately went off to after he was begged by his daughter (whose mother had already done so).

* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'': In "A Taste of Armageddon" they're used in lieu of nuclear warfare; computers select those who have been 'killed' in each attack, and the victims report voluntarily to the suicide booths, thus sparing their civilization the horrors of mass destruction. Things go well until Kirk and his crew are designated dead.

* An episode of ''{{Sliders}}'' had them travel into a world where kids had taken over, and it was illegal to live too long, as low as 50 in some states.

* One of the earliest examples occurs in WinsorMcCay's ''DreamOfTheRarebitFiend'': [[http://www.comicstriplibrary.org/display/952 see here]]. Needless to say given the title, it's AllJustADream.

* In ''Literature/{{Haunted2005}}'', Mr. Whittier's second story, "Obsolete", deals with mandatory euthanasia of all humans so that everyone will move on to the next world (shown as a party on Venus) rather than continue to reincarnate on Earth.

* In ''Literature/Haunted2005'', Mr. Whittier's second story, "Obsolete", deals with mandatory euthanasia of all humans so that everyone will move on to the next world (shown as a party on Venus) rather than continue to reincarnate on Earth.

* Appears in ''Time Enough for Love''-"Death is Every Man's Privilege."

Euthanasia is at present a controversial social issue. However, in many futuristic societies, it is a norm, and may in fact be encouraged. This is generally, but not always, the sign of a {{Dystopia}}, and at the very least demonstrates the divergence between the fictional world and the actual one. A handy rule of thumb is that the consensual nature of the euthanasia presented is inversely proportional to how dystopian the society presented is supposed to be.

* In ''OryxAndCrake'', people compete to feature on nighty-night.com, in which their suicide is streamed live for entertainment.

* In "Spending a Day at the Lottery Fair," a short story by FrederikPohl, an overpopulated U.S. where both abortion ''and'' contraception are outlawed implements a form of population control using euthanasia by chance. "Lottery fairs" are held periodically at which fairgoers "pay" for rides, concessions, raffles (including several for jobs), etc. by inserting their arms into a cuff that offers a small but real chance of delivering a lethal injection.

* OlderThanTelevision: It is one of the themes of "The Repairer of Reputations", a short story by Robert Chambers which introduced ''TheKingInYellow''. The story, written in 1895, depicts society [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture twenty five years on]], where "Government Lethal Chambers" have become widespread, so that people can self-euthanize without hassle.