Every child when born should be given a pill strong enough to take his own life, as Mynheer Peeperkorn did in Thomas Mann’s “The Magic Mountain.” If the child is well brought up, when he becomes an adult he will be happy to end it if he becomes a burden to others; for he can look forward to a next life of happiness being brought up well by his parents. If he is badly brought up, in the next life he will commit suicide. So it is that the process repeats itself until the human race becomes happy.
When I wrote this it seemed sensible, but my friend Elaine didn’t like it, in spite of all my attempts to explain its reasonableness.
Now I think I see why. It leads to Naziism and “final solutions.” Impressionable young people will very likely take the pill to commit suicide—it’s an easy way to die. That way they will be eliminated as undesirables like non-Aryans and those who are deficient in other ways, like those with Down’s syndrome. My original good intention to move the human race toward happiness would have profoundly evil results.
Now I believe the “strong pill” should only be given to a person when he/she is a fully grown adult–perhaps about age fifty.