Why the death of an Economics Nobel winner has reignited debate on assisted dying

Kahneman sent a final email to close friends, saying, “I discovered after making the decision that I am not afraid of not existing, and that I think of death as going to sleep and not waking up. The last period has truly not been hard, except for witnessing the pain I caused others. So if you were inclined to be sorry for me, don’t be… Thank you for helping make my life a good one.”

The essay also attempts to understand his motivations, given that Kahneman was an authority on how humans make decisions and the imperfect reasoning they often employ. At a broader level, it also raises ethical questions about human lives, death and society at large.

The life and death of Daniel Kahneman

Kahneman was born in Israel in 1934. Much of his early life was spent in France, where his family had immigrated in the early 1920s. During World War 2 (1939-45), they hid from the Nazi regime that controlled parts of France.

After the war, they shifted to Israel, where Kahneman completed his undergraduate studies in Psychology at Hebrew University. He served in the Israeli Defence Forces for a few years, under conscription or mandatory military service. He and his wife Irah moved to the US to complete their post-graduation degrees. Over the years, he has been associated with the University of California, Berkeley, Harvard University, and Princeton University.

He was awarded the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences “for having integrated insights from psychological research into economic science, especially concerning human judgment and decision-making under uncertainty”.

The Nobel Prize, in its citation, said traditional economic theory relied on the assumption that humans rationally make decisions based on self-interest. This served as the basis for various economic theories. However, cognitive psychologists and experimental economists conducting experiments challenged this view in the 1980s. The prize recognised two “innovators” in this realm of behavioural economics – Daniel Kahneman and Vernon Smith.

For instance, the “loss aversion” theory he developed with Amos Tversky says that people prefer small, guaranteed outcomes rather than larger, risky ones. This has helped explain investment and spending habits. The “peak-end rule” developed with Barbara Fredrickson states that when people retrospectively evaluate an experience (such as a job), they rely more heavily on the episode with peak intensity (whether good or bad) and on the final episode than on other episodes in the experience.

He also wrote several books, the best known being Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011). It explains how people think, the errors they make and why their biases cloud their judgment. Jason Zweig helped him during the project. He wrote in his WSJ essay that Kahneman spent his last days in Paris to be with his daughter and enjoyed his time in the city, savouring its food and museums.

Kahneman wrote in his email, “I am still active, enjoying many things in life (except the daily news) and will die a happy man. But my kidneys are on their last legs, the frequency of mental lapses is increasing, and I am ninety years old. It is time to go.”

The ethics of assisted suicide

Zweig wrote in his essay that although assisted dying remains illegal in most countries, it is on the rise. Switzerland is one of the few that allow it, given certain conditions are met.

“It is an intensely emotional topic. A recent Gallup survey asked whether it should be legal for doctors to assist terminally ill patients in severe pain to commit suicide; 66% of Americans said yes. On the other hand, in a separate Gallup poll, 40% of participants said doctor-assisted suicide is “morally wrong,”” he wrote.

Proponents of such methods point to the pain and ailments that people experience during old age, the accompanying cognitive decline, the constant support and financial assistance needed, and so on. Beyond factors such as age, some argue that humans should have the ability to take matters of their life and death into their own hands to deal with unbearable pain, whether it be due to physical or mental illnesses.

The resistance to such a view stems from both ideological and medico-legal perspectives. Ideology includes religious views that say humans do not control when they enter the world and cannot decide when they should die; that it is beyond their realm. Such a decision would also be final, so the possible recovery of a person suffering from ailments remains. There may also be pressure from one’s family to go for such methods if they are legalised, in the hopes of gains such as inheritance. It can also result in little incentive for societies to ensure proper access to palliative care.

Currently, a handful of countries allow medically assisted dying in case of severe illness, mostly in Europe. In the UK, MPs voted for a proposal to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales in November 2024, but further scrutiny is required before the Bill can become law.