Death by Schrödinger's Cat

Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, wished that euthanasia were legal as his father suffered through his last days with no chance of getting better. But of course, euthanasia is illegal in most countries. (Many of the reasons why it’s illegal are perfectly valid: fear of misuse by relatives; a rash decision made by the patient when things look bleak and/or he is in agony that may well be short-lived and so on).

Months after he had ranted and wished the worst sort of deaths for lawmakers who refused to allow even terminal patients to die easily, Adams came up with this idea of a doctor-assisted suicide machine that would combined a machine with a random number generator:

“Let's say the random part of the device is attached by electronics to another part of the device that delivers a fatal dose of sedatives and poison to whoever is attached to it. You push the button and one of two things can randomly happen:

o   Nothing

o   Lethal drugs are released”

Sounds like Schrödinger’s cat, doesn’t it?! Adams takes it a step further and suggests plugging the device onto the Net. That way, the kill press is by a random guy, not a relative who can’t go through with the idea. Allow infinite presses of the switch and at some point, the patient will die.

But wait, you say, how is this different from legalizing euthanasia? As Adams explains, the difference is based on the fact that our sense of right and wrong is illogical, irrational and inconsistent. Because:

“Deaths would always be an accident in the sense that no human could reliably predict the specific outcome in advance.”

So what, you ask? Adams cites a parallel that should make things clearer:

“By analogy, the device I am describing is a lot like smoking. We know that smoking kills people but it is legal precisely because we can't predict which people will die from it. If we could, it would be illegal for sure.”

Come to think of it, Adams is right. Fatal injuries do occur in sports (remember that Aussie cricketer who died after being struck by the ball?). And yet cricket and boxing are legal sports! Perhaps Adams is right when he says, “Predictability matters”.