Euthanasia: The Social Factors of the Desire to Die

The request for euthanasia and the desire to die, in many cases, has social causes. The first thing in a society is to face these social conditions rather than facilitate death. Many people do not want to die but to live differently. The article analyzes twenty factors that condition this desire to die: loneliness, isolation, distrust, lack of participation and sense of community, abandonment, depression, lack of palliative care, lack of affection, fear of being an economic burden, pressure from family, fatigue, lack of respect for fragile and vulnerable life, the difficulty of handling suffering, the increase of medical power, etc. Societies and countries must fight to transform these social conditions to enable better care for these people and to fight, beyond euthanasia, to avoid suffering caused by social problems.