The old man and death

In the context of profound social and medical developments over the last century, especially in terms of life expectancy, a dimension of social death of the elderly has developed, leading to the emergence of requests for assisted dying at the end of life for psychological and/or existential reasons. It is by giving a voice to the elderly facing exclusion due to aging, their mental precariousness, and an uncertain future that it becomes possible to understand this desire to anticipate death.Societal changes and clinical developments place the ethics of vulnerability of old age at the forefront of a reflection in which the resulting notion of social death and precariousness can bring out a desire for early death.