Gotta get me one of them Suicide Bears

Last updated on: May 7, 2015 at 10:05 am by Jane the Actuary

Gotta get me one of them Suicide Bears 2015-05-07T10:05:10-06:00 Jane the Actuary

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Here’s the story:

Yesterday one of the Patheos bloggers, Seasons of Grace, linked to an article on iflscience.org describing a “Suicide Bear” — a robot invented in Japan to provide assisted suicide to the elderly, allowing them to chose from multiple mechanisms for suicide, from suffocation to strangulation to lethal injection, all done in an automated fashion at the touch of a button. The article states that this is all for the purpose of providing suicide options to the elderly, and implies that suicide is recognized as a right, which health care professionals are obliged to provide.

Now, this didn’t seem particularly credible, though I’d had plenty of facebook-friends link to iflscience, so I suspected that that site, rather than being a hoax site, was fooled by some other hoax site that they themselves didn’t credit. Turns out, according to snopes.com, the trick is that the “.org” iflscience is a hoax site intended to mimic in appearance the real “.com” iflscience site. (Even instapundit.com was taken in until readers pointed this out.)

Now, the real “Suicide Bear” is, per the press release Snopes links to, actually a robot intended to help the elderly in nursing homes, who may have some capacity to stand, with help, get from a bed to a wheelchair. And this, this I want — for Dad, of course — though it looks like it needs a couple generations more of development before it’s able to pick up an elderly person who has (arrrgh!) fallen off the bed, rather than just helping them up off a chair. But the whole issue of costs for caring for the elderly? So many of the tasks involved are embarrassing for the individuals themselves — who wants a nurse to wipe your bottom? — and if a robot, rather than a person, could perform these tasks, and the caregivers actually provide human interaction instead, it would provide greater privacy, and a greater feeling of dignity to the individuals themselves (and as a bonus limit the anticipated growth in personnel required!).

But we know that Japan has a serious problem with an imbalance due to an aging population and an unsustainably-low birth rate, and they’ve chosen not to import the next generation of “Japanese,” both out of a racism in the population and a feeling that, in a way, it would be meaningless to keep a country called “Japan” in existence if its new residents are not actually Japanese, both in terms of ancestry and culture. Which may or may not be particularly wise, and Japan has plenty of problems, and I sure as heck am glad I’m not Japanese (see here for a book I read a while back).

And, even though Japan is actually leading the way in robotics research in large degree, as I understand, motivated by the desire to automate certain tasks involved in care for the elderly, our Western perception of their collectivist culture, as well as the increasing chorus of support for assisted suicide for all manner of reasons, and knowledge of their imbalance of elderly and their high suicide rate in general, makes it easy to believe that Japan has moved much further in the direction of routinizing a “Release to Elsewhere” than previously known.

So what is going on in Japan? According to Wikipedia, there exists a very limited legal framework for euthanasia: severe pain, unrelievable by any means, approaching death, and ability to actively consent are all required. How successful has the country been in holding to these very narrow grounds? Looking at google, irritatingly enough, the Suicide Bear shows up for all the top hits for Japan assisted suicide, and successive hits are all just mentions of Japan in lists of countries where assisted suicide is not illegal, or other cases where Japan shows up in an extraneous fashion due to a separate story on the same page.

On the other hand, when it comes to suicide of the elderly, in Japan and in East Asia in general, there is a rather high, and growing rate, according to this article from the Global Post, but it is viewed as a mental health problem to be treated, not a solution to demographic imbalances.

So why are we so willing to believe that our future is one of Soylent Green, or Release to Elsewhere, or Suicide Bears? And is this really the path we’re on? As is often the case, I thought if I rambled on for long enough, I’d come to a conclusion, but no such luck, so it’s an exercise for the reader.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

May 6, 2015

Will the real bookworm please stand up?

Next Post

May 8, 2015 Yes, I'm a transgenderism skeptic

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Actuarial/Retirement Issues Politics Uncategorized

Select a Month September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 December 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 August 2021 June 2021 April 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

According to James, what does the prayer offered in faith do for the sick person?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Comfort their spirit Shorten their suffering Ease their pain Make them well, and the Lord will raise them up