Self-Inflicted: Confronting the Suicide Taboo

In Self-Inflicted, Dr. Karl T. Muth advances the argument that suicide should be a choice widely-available, that the optimal number of suicides per year is not zero but a number much higher, and that suicide is in many ways preferable and superior to so-called and oft-idealized natural death. He further argues physician-assisted suicide is not a tenable compromise between acceptance and prohibition and that policies limiting access to death inadvertently transform allowed suicide into a luxury good unavailable to the masses.

Muth was part of the unlikely tribe of 2010s technology executives, venture capitalists, lowercase-L libertarians, crypto-nouveau-riche, and "singularity" enthusiasts very excited about radical lifespan extension or "technologically-enhanced" longevity. Today, however, Muth is instead focused on quality over quantity; specifically, the best life possible within a known lifespan and ending on a planned date with little pain and few regrets. These are the arguments that changed his mind.