[ExI] Legal euthanasia for mental problems increasing worldwide

[Kelly Anderson]

The remote Pacific island of Tikopia, as described in Jared Diamond's
book "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed" (2005),
provides a fascinating case study of a society that successfully
managed its limited resources and survived for thousands of years. One
of the most striking practices employed by the Tikopians was a form of
population control called "virtual suicide," where individuals would
voluntarily paddle out to sea, never to return, when the island's
population grew too large to be sustainable.

In Chapter 9 of "Collapse," titled "Opposite Paths to Success,"
Diamond examines the history of Tikopia and contrasts it with the
collapse of the nearby Mangareva Islands. He explains that Tikopia, a
small 1.8 square mile island, sustained a stable population of around
1,200 people for millennia. To maintain this delicate balance, the
Tikopians developed a complex system of resource management,
sustainable agriculture, and population control.

When the island's chiefs determined that the population had grown too
large, they would call for volunteers to "take a canoe trip." These
brave individuals would paddle out into the vast Pacific Ocean,
sacrificing their lives for the greater good of their community. This
practice, along with other measures like celibacy, delayed marriage,
and infanticide, allowed the Tikopians to keep their population in
check and avoid overexploiting their limited resources.

While such extreme practices may seem unethical or inhumane by modern
standards, Diamond argues that they were a necessary adaptation to the
harsh realities of life on a small, isolated island. The Tikopians'
willingness to make these difficult choices, he suggests, was a key
factor in their long-term success and survival.

Perhaps we can think of these people in Denmark and other countries as
engaging in a similar kind of pro-societal sacrifice as the Tikopians.
Does that make it ethically easier to process? Or are the actions of
the Tikopians, despite their sustained living on an island with VERY
limited resources, just too draconian even for this audience?

-Kelly (with a little help from Claude in getting some of the details right)

On Thu, Apr 18, 2024 at 4:35 AM BillK via extropy-chat
<extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
> Extending euthanasia to get rid of problems or difficult cases sounds
> very dubious to me.