Daniel Kahneman’s Decision: A Debate About Choice in Dying

To the Editor:

Re “The Lesson From a Nobel Laureate’s Chosen Death,” by Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek and Peter Singer (Opinion guest essay, April 20):

I admire and respect Daniel Kahneman’s decision to end his life at 90 and hope I am able to be as clearheaded and resolute in another decade or two, when my time comes.

I understand our culture’s knee-jerk pushback against the notion of assisted suicide when there is no imminent threat of death. However, as someone who has cared for elderly relatives suffering “the miseries and indignities of the last years of life” that Professor Kahneman feared, I think his decision makes perfect sense.

I witnessed the awful reality of a loved one, sick and infirm, with no prospect for returning to an independent life, suffer for three long years. Regardless of age or accomplishment, all that each of us has in life is this precious moment — now. Seeing those moments reduced to nothing more than waiting to die and the misery that prospect elicits reveals the wisdom of Professor Kahneman’s decision.

G. Steve Jordan
New York

To the Editor:

You don’t have to be a Nobel laureate to understand Daniel Kahneman’s concept of a “complete” life and his decision to go to Switzerland. I believe that our freedoms include the right to die with dignity. If an individual who is cogent and psychologically stable believes that she has lived life well, that her life is complete and that her future will not bring improvement or joy, she should have the right to make the decision to terminate her life. Period.

I am 77 years old, and I have talked with my husband and two adult children about my wishes. While I am not ready to make the decision today, I want them to understand my choices when the time is right. I truly hope there are states in this country, including my own, that will follow Switzerland’s lead in time for my decision. Thank you for publishing this important essay.

Joan Temko Anyon
San Francisco

To the Editor:

Daniel Kahneman’s decision to end his life through assisted suicide in Switzerland raises troubling questions about the normalization of such practices. Professor Kahneman was not terminally ill, which is what most American proponents of assisted suicide say it is for.