A Debate Over ‘Rational Suicide’
August 31, 2018
On a March morning in 1989, Robert Shoots was found dead in his garage in Weir, Kan. He had run a tube from the tailpipe of his beloved old Chrysler to the front seat, where he sat with a bottle of Wild Turkey. He was 80.
His daughter wishes he had mentioned this plan when they spoke by phone the night before, because she didn't get to say a satisfying goodbye. But she would not have tried to dissuade him from suicide.