Suicide and Euthanasia in Older Adults: A Transcultural Journey

Suicide among older people is a significant problem, but one that has tended to be neglected in recent years. And in an age where populations and cultures are becoming increasingly mixed due to migration and globalization, it is vital that lessons concerning suicide and euthanasia be learned from different countries. This book provides help by bringing together a unique range of perspectives on aging, suicide, and euthanasia from different cultures and countries around the world. In addition to analytical overviews of the relationship between socio-economic or psychological factors and suicidal behavior, differences between younger and older suicides, family factors, and physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia, contributions by leading authorities from 10 different regions each contain a description of suicide in old age, as well as discussions of views concerning the role of the elderly in that culture and the issue of euthanasia/assisted suicide, especially in the terminally ill.

This book is of interest not just for suicidologists but also for psychiatrists, psychologists, sociologists, ethicists, thanatologists, geriatricians, psychogeriatricians and psychogerontologists.

A remarkable book, dealing with vital but often neglected topics:

. Suicide in the elderly
. Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide
. Cultural aspects