Discussion Would be suicide a profitable business?

[bananaolympus]

In a world were euthanasia were to be legal, would companies that practice assisted suicide be a billion+ dollar market would be such a high demand if there were little to no restructions?

 

[JustHere1]

Personally I would say yes. I'd pay anything to have a peaceful death done by someone else's hand.

 

[sorrynormal]

Futurama had suicide booths, so yes.

 

[dontwakemeup]

I agree, it would be a lucrative business. There's a long waiting list for people waiting for organs so it seems like this would ge a great idea!

 

[enditplz]

No one looking to turn a huge profit would go into a business that involves killing its customer base and having no repeat customers. Plus it's human nature to want to live, so even if it was made legal majority of the population wouldn't utilize assisted suicide programs. And add in the nutjobs who think it's their duty to police what we do with our bodies and you end up with a bunch of bombed clinics and assassinated doctors just like how abortion doctors are villainized. It would probably turn some profit, but anyone going into that business wouldn't be doing it for money, they'd do it cause they believe everyone deserves a choice.

 

[ScaredOfMachines]

No one looking to turn a huge profit would go into a business that involves killing its customer base and having no repeat customers. Plus it's human nature to want to live, so even if it was made legal majority of the population wouldn't utilize assisted suicide programs. And add in the nutjobs who think it's their duty to police what we do with our bodies and you end up with a bunch of bombed clinics and assassinated doctors just like how abortion doctors are villainized. It would probably turn some profit, but anyone going into that business wouldn't be doing it for money, they'd do it cause they believe everyone deserves a choice.

I have to agree with this take. No repeat customers makes it impossible for a business to succeed. Think of Instant Pot, a company that sold a extremely loved item and had amazing reviews. They did really well at first, making a ton of money really quickly, but eventually went bankrupt a while back because they sold such a good product, none of them broke and there were no repeat customers.

Euthanasia clinics would do really well at first, but after a while demand might die down to only a thirty people a month or so, and profit would go down. No profit, no more clinic. That's not even mentioning how many pro-lifers something like this would attract and would try to destroy the clinics and what-not, putting an even deeper gash in those profits.

 

[Loaf of bread]

I also agree with other replies, the lack of repeat customers would make it not very lucrative.

There is a chance of this working in countries with for-profit healthcare like the USA - perhaps assisted CTB requires organ donation afterwards which would be transplanted for profit of the hospital? Today donating plasma more or less does that, am I mistaken?

 

[Gustav Hartmann]

Undertakers don't have repeat customers too, but they can rely on the fact that everybody will be once their customer. Only few people commit suicide but they could be guaranteed customers. It would be a provitable niche. Advetisement for example in nursing homes, hospitals, prisons and in front of gambling casinos would expand the market. Snuff movie production could be a niche in the niche.

 

[Forveleth]

Absolutely yes. If only because making money off of desperate people is already a billion dollar industry (look at US healthcare). If something is in high demand, someone will find a way to make an ass-ton of money off of it.

 

[Forever Sleep]

I think it probably already is...

Dignitas founder accused of profiteering

Founder of assisted suicide organisation Dignitas appears before a local court on charges of profiteering, the first case of its kind in Switzerland.

www.swissinfo.ch

 

[Dr Iron Arc]

Futurama had suicide booths, so yes.

Futurama's Earth in the 30th and 31st Centuries has a population of over 50 billion so if suicide booths are really the future you want to see then better start reproducing.

 

[pariah80]

I'll put it like this...

When the corporatocracy finds a way to efficiently make money off of it, they'll happily provide medically assisted euthanasia. I guess that would be a time when the elite think they are ready to go to Mars. They'll no longer need mindless 'lower classes' to help build their rocket ships and the rich can just leave the masses here on a depleted planet.

 

[sunsetting]

I think organ donation would be the main money maker here in such a case. Organ trafficking is a thing on hospitals where I live and once in a while there's scandals where the medics or the whole intensive care team is involved in making a patient get worse health just to harvest it.

 

[Tig]

Seems to me if there was enough to be made in this business, it interfere with the mental health rackets, drug companies, and modern medicine already competing for victims, it would get regulated right out business before it even started.

There will always be black market, bargain bins of death though like, N, F, CO, SN ect. and thier vendors.

The rich will always get what they want, Dr's, Head Shrink'ers, Big Pharma and such, the rest of us will have to struggle with Death the best can though.

 

[pthnrdnojvsc]

In a world that is not a prison this would be legal.

Even if u are suffering unending constant unbearable pain from excruciating pain every second for years u can't call someone to assist u in suicide to take u way from unbearable pain. Why can't I call someone to come over and shoot Me in the head? Because they made that a crime . Why aren't there suicide booths , Nembutal , fentanyl for sale..?

Millions of people especially in old age would like to have the option of a guaranteed painless quick dying as opposed to suffering decades with alsheimers , constant unbearable pain from incurable skin sores , arthritis , cancer , trouble breathing , etc, What kind of world is this that nobody has the option to leave it when they want to . Even if u are suffering unending constant unbearable pain from pain every second for years u can't call someone to assist u in suicide to take u way from pain

Any one can fall into a torture trap any day from brain damage to incurable diseases like Lyme disease or cancer. Anyone can fall , car accident , stroke or heat attack and get brain damage . Terry schiavo was 26 gotbheart attactk then was saved and got brain damage. They kept her alive by a feeding tube For years

Remember that heroin morphine cocaine were legal no prescription for a long time before they passed massive laws in the evil USA.

Even a small monkey like me could think of a self injectable fentanyl kit. A few grams of fentanyl will certainly cause a euphoric painless Death. Even taken orally since around 3 milligrams injected can be lethal

Nembutal was legal by prescription until several movie stars used it for a painless exit out of this hell

Nembutal should be available for purchasing online 3 clicks on Amazon and u escape hell

 

[ijustwishtodie]

Probably not. There is some profit to be made by peacefully euthanising a suicidal person and using their organs to help those who want to live but there's unfortunately a bigger profit to be made by coercing everybody to stay alive for as long as possible so that the medical pharma can profit from our suffering. Additionally, legalising assisted suicide could come with the risk of suicide potentially being normalised one day which would be absolutely disastrous to capitalism. Of course right now suicide isn't popular but if there's anything that religion has taught me, it's that anything can become popular if there's enough indoctrination being put into that idea. It's why there's currently so much pro life indoctrination happening and it works really well because even most suicidal people don't realise that they still have the pro life beliefs caused by indoctrination within them

 

[eike2838]

I think it would not be, but not because it is not profitable, but because society will not want

 

[Sutter]

Death is already big business, possibly the biggest.

Either war, accidents, homicide, self inflicted, and acts of unknown origin walk this land today and death is for everyone.

Can see it already, run a memtal health section during the day with a funeral home in the basement and sarcopods. Put a bar in the back and run at night. Pull in those already dead, those thinking of dying, and cap it off with with possibles and spurs of the moment running the bar, offering death to those in need as a chaser. Looking at the world now built on the souls of the dead literally and figuratively, seems without a doubt it would be big business.

Maybe not though life is a gambler and runs some long odds.

 

[bleeding_heart_show]

I figure if it was profitable it would already be a business the way war and medicine are. Maybe the taboo prevents it from reaching this point.

I do not understand how millions of people are not attempting suicide each day if I am being honest.

 

[SVEN]

After the initial flurry of new start ups, I'd reckon the market would settle down to its' own sustainable level. Baby foods and nappies, for instance, are products whose customers have a limited timespan of requiring them, however there are always new customers coming along. As do Funeral Parlours as Gustave pointed out upthread.

 

[TheHolySword]

There's just not really a viable business model. As others have said, no repeat customers is a huge issue. But also you have to look at operational costs, accessibility, legal issues, protests. As with any business the product needs to be affordable and accessible to its primary client base. While suicidal people don't really have a set statistic, you generally have to cater the lowest denominator for the widest field - especially in a business that has a limited customer base. There are a lot of variables that just make this not very enticing as an enterprise.

 

[Praestat_Mori]

It probably is or will be a profitable business bc the charges will be high for relatively cheap deadly medicines and charges for a few hours until you take those deadly meds or get the injection.

It won't be profitable: The vast majority of living humans are not suicidal and if they are it's still not that easy for a majority of people who wanna die, there's still SI.

Only very few people will go through with it compared to the whole number of people.

 

[unknown_xav]

I think in a way it's possible that it can be an industry, but also the nature of it will depend on the regulations of whether it must be a company on its own with one focus or there is allowance for it as an add on service with e.g in healthcare, insurance, and funeral homes. My assumption is that there are several ways this could happen.

1) The industry will mostly be just similar to the current system in healthcare.
2) Dominant pharmacy companies or state ones will provide pills.
3) Healthcare institutions such as clinics, and hospitals will provide the outlets for the process and medical professionals who deal with the process either at your home or any other place.
4) Insurance or medical aid companies could be involved and simply offer an add-on service for suicide process, equipment and so on when needed.
5) There might be some innovative companies that offer the whole process outside these. Like pods and the cremation or organ donation etc. similar to Switzerland but this will be dominated by one or two companies in each country or multinationals. But I don't think there'd be room for a lot of competition in that area it's probably going to either be a monopoly, or oligopoly with less than 4/5 big corps.
6) The same applies for companies that will offer tech, and meds or chemicals for more peaceful methods. They will probably be packaged within point 5 or it would be the dominant medical tech companies that supply medical tech and engineering services for health who will take over or dominate.

My biggest bet is on it just being an add-on to normal Healthcare service just like how even though there's some specialised abortion clinics here and there, in most countries the process is just a normal service offered at hospitals or via your doctor just like any other procedure no matter how rare. And your ordinary parlours provide you with burial, or cremation services. In terms of demand I think it will follow trends as in normal suicide or euthenasia in current countries that allow. And will depend on country based issues e.g cultural, economy, health, demographics etc.

 

[neenie]

I think such companies might be profitable, people wouldn't mind paying a lot because they won't use the money once dead and they can add extras like packages including funerals and a super fun last day or whatever. Also I've realized that (at least around me) people consider suicide more than I imagined.

 

[Euthanza]

I hope it's not, but here we are, no one is safe under capitalism.

 

[ShatteredSerenity]

If euthanasia businesses were not highly regulated they probably would not be very profitable. Prices will depend on supply vs demand, and if there are low barriers to entry then a lot of businesses will open, which means high supply of euthanasia services so prices would fall. At some point prices fall too low and businesses have to shut down or get bought out by a more successful competitor. Eventually prices would stabilize at a level that is profitable enough to survive, but not too high so other business don't undercut them to steal business.

This is basically what's happened when they legalized marijuana on the West Coast of the US where I live. I think euthanasia could be pretty similar to that industry in a lot of ways.

 

[Worndown]

I see it being more successful along the model of Planned Parenthood. Small, well run clinics dedicated to help those in need.