ABSTRACT
In the early twenty-first century, the movement in favor of permitting assisted suicide appears to be inevitable, but its past suggests that it remains dependent on the twists and turns of history. Even though the demographic, clinical and attitudinal pre-conditions for the toleration of assisted suicide show few signs of abating, the unique aspects of assisted suicide guarantee to generate fierce debate in the future, as they have in the recent past. The short history of assisted suicide as a permissible version of suicide itself reminds us that its future is far from pre-ordained.
