History Main / WeWillHaveEuthanasiaInTheFuture

* OlderThanTelevision: It is one of the themes of "The Repairer of Reputations", a short story by Robert Chambers which introduced ''Literature/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.

* ''{{WesternAnimation/Futurama}}'':
** Parodied 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.
** A related discussion, next to a large swimming pool-sized vat of stem cells.
---> '''Fry''': Fetal stem cells? Aren't those controversial?
---> '''Farnsworth''': In your time, yes. But today... shut up. Besides, these are ''adult'' stem cells, from perfectly healthy adults... [[CrossesTheLineTwice whom I murdered for their stem cells.]]

* In ''Film/ChildrenOfTheCorn1984'', any of the Children who turns 19 is obliged to walk out into the cornfield and be taken by He Who Walks Behind The Rows. A partial {{subversion}}, as they don't realize they're going to die [[spoiler: (or worse, in Isaac's case)]].

* In the ‘’Series/BlackMirror’’ episode “[[Recap/BlackMirrorSanJunipero 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.]]

* In ''Literature/TheGiver'', everybody except the Receiver of Memories has the right to commit suicide whenever they want and euthanasia (which is called being "ReleasedToElsewhere") is practiced on the elderly, the smaller of twins, and babies that don't develop correctly, as well as on people who cause too much trouble (airplane pilots who make too many mistakes, for instance). Consent is an issue in the latter case, though, since they don't know it's euthanasia rather than exile. Due to the way this society works, even the people who perform "Release" don't fully understand what they are doing. Only the Giver and the Receiver, the only people who possess all of the knowledge the society has given up, understand that "Release" means death. [[spoiler: One chilling scene is when the main character realizes his father kills the "defective" infants]].

* Appears in ''Film/LogansRun'' in the form of "Carrousel," the ritual that everyone who hits the age of thirty has to go through in hopes of "Renewal," and which no one has ever survived.

* Suicide booths were featured in ''Manga/BattleAngelAlita''

* ''LightNovel/CrestOfTheStars'' features a weird sort of hereditary euthanasia. The Abh's genetic modifications include a mechanism that causes them to die painlessly when their brain starts falling apart due to old age.
* Utilized in ''Literature/FromTheNewWorld'' as a precaution against [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity potentially maladjusted individuals]] using their power to kill everyone.

** ''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.

* Suicide booths were featured in ''Manga/{{Gunnm}}''

*** In an episode 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).

* In ''Literature/{{Haunted}}'', 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 an episode of ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', it's mentioned that Vulcan society does allow euthanasia in certain cases. It's interesting in that Vulcan is never shown to be anything resembling a dystopia, it's just that for a society that runs entirely on cold logic, killing someone who will spend the rest of their lives in misery and will never improve makes perfect sense. When the ''Voyager'' crew comes across a member of the Q Continuum who wants to commit suicide, he enlists Tuvok to help him prepare his argument in favor of it to the other Q.

* In ''Film/StarTrekVTheFinalFrontier'', Bones is forced to relive the memory of his dying father begging him to pull the plug, which he does -- shortly before a cure for his father's illness was found.

* The concept of a dystopian future is an overlying theme in many albums published by Arjen A. Lucassen, but his album "Music/LostInTheNewReal" in particular has a surprisingly upbeat song advertising a certain "Dr. Slumber’s Eternity Home".

* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'':
** In an episode 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).
** Vulcans and Klingons both have practices where a sufficiently crippled or incapacitated individual may opt to die. Worf planned to do it in one episode after being paralyzed, and Picard argued Klingon tradition should be respected in a somewhat {{anvilicious}} way to Riker (whom Worf had asked to assist in the ritual, as direct suicide is still "dishonorable" for Klingons). Worf changed his mind in the end, partly because Riker does some investigating and discovers that it should in fact be Worf's ''son'' who assists, and Worf cannot bring himself to ask the child to do so. And partly because Picard was able to convince Dr Crusher to ''also'' respect Klingon values by authorizing an incredibly risky, experimental surgery to reverse the damage despite her belief that Worf should receive futuristic physical therapy instead (which would still leave him basically crippled).
* ''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.
** In "The Mark of Gideon," an extremely overpopulated world is trying to set up a voluntary suicide system, starting by infecting the leader's daughter with a disease.

* In an episode of ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', it's mentioned that Vulcan society does allow euthanasia in certain cases. It's interesting in that Vulcan is never shown to be anything resembling a dystopia, it's just that for a society that runs entirely on cold logic, killing someone who will spend the rest of their lives in misery and will never improve makes perfect sense. When the Voyager crew comes across a member of the Q continuum who wants to commit suicide, he enlists Tuvok to help him prepare his argument in favor of it to the other Q.

* VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas features a Vault which required one of its population to be sacrificed every year in order to keep the remainder alive (for no reason other than that its builders were huge jerks). The sacrifice sequence mirrors the ''Soylent Green'' example above. The Vault's residents elect the person they consider the worst member of their society for the annual sacrifice. Anvilicious. [[spoiler: When things inevitably turn violent and messy in the decision process, it turns out it was supposed to be a SecretTestOfCharacter by the designers: no sacrifice was actually required at all to keep the Vault running, the automated message that informed the survivors seemed to indicate they were expected to rebel against the system and refuse to sacrifice anyone from the beginning. Seems the Vault designers were a little ''too'' idealistic.]]

[[folder: Tabletop Games]]

---> '''Farnsworth''': In your time, yes. But today... shut up. Besides, these are ''adult'' stem cells, from perfectly healthy adults... whom I murdered for their stem cells.

* VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas features a Vault which required one of its population to be sacrificed every year in order to keep the remainder alive (for no reason other than that it's builders were huge jerks). The sacrifice sequence mirrors the ''Soylent Green'' example above. The Vault's residents elect the person they consider the worst member of their society for the annual sacrifice. Anvilicious. [[spoiler: When things inevitably turn violent and messy in the decision process, it turns out it was supposed to be a SecretTestOfCharacter by the designers: no sacrifice was actually required at all to keep the Vault running, the automated message that informed the survivors seemed to indicate they were expected to rebel against the system and refuse to sacrifice anyone from the beginning. Seems the Vault designers were a little ''too'' idealistic.]]

* In the ''Literature/ImperialRadch'' series, TheEmpire of the Radch makes physician-assisted suicide universally available, although that fact is only mentioned in passing to contrast with the unusual and [[SuicideIsShameful embarrassing]] circumstance of someone killing ''herself''. It's not a sign of dystopia -- given that the Lord of the Radch can order summary executions on a whim, the pretense of euthanesia would hardly be necessary.