Also a theme in Huxley's Brave New World where people were kept looking and thinking young by artificial means until the age of 60 and then were sent to hospitals for the dying to be euthanised - if I recall the details correctly.
There is also a excellent futuristic novel, by Nevil Shute,
On the beach, where the subject of suicide is very present.
The Australian government provides citizens with free suicide pills and injections to avoid prolonged suffering from radiation poisoning.
This novel about nuclear war was written in 1957 during the Cold War. It's interesting to read it now to see how these great science fiction writers saw the future and knew what was going to happen or what will happen. In the
Soylent Green story, too, the subject of suicide is very present, linked to overpopulation on the planet. People are given the chance to kill themselves, to make room. And now more and more laws are being created to allow people to commit suicide so as not to upset the system, the family, society, and the subject of suicide is no longer taboo. In time, living will become a taboo subject.
The idea of making people believe that suicide is something good, acceptable and even recommendable is monstrous. It's an insult to life, to hope. But it's also very symbolic of our times, a struggle between light and darkness, despair and hope, hopelessness and vitality.
Inciting people to commit suicide is a criminal act, one of many, isn't it?