This article is republished from National Review with the permission of the author.

Once we decide that killing is an acceptable answer to suffering, the kind of suffering that qualifies us to be made dead continually expands. Now, an elderly British couple have committed joint assisted suicide at a Swiss termination clinic to avoid future widowhood and increasing fragility — in other words, to eliminate future suffering. From the Daily Record story:

A devoted couple who “couldn’t bear to be apart” have died together at a Swiss assisted dying clinic after sending emails to their relatives to let them know.

Neither Michael Posner, 97, nor his wife Ruth, 96, had a terminal illness, but had made the decision to die together because they were desperate not to be apart after 75 years of marriage.

This is far from the first such case as euthanasia consciousness has spread throughout the West. I even know of one joint euthanasia homicide in Belgium of an elderly couple who weren’t sick but worried about future widowhood. It was arranged by their son so the children could avoid future caregiving.

There was a time that joint geriatric suicides were considered tragedies. Now they are accepted by many without so much as a raised eyebrow. This is the “compassionate” world, favoring some suicides, that euthanasia advocates are conjuring.