Appendix 3 – Daniel Kahneman’s final letter

Daniel Kahneman was a psychologist at Princeton University in New Jersey. He was the winner of the Nobel Prize in economics in 2002 and was also the author of “Thinking, Fast and Slow”, first published in 2011, which remains on the all-time best sellers list.   He died in Switzerland in March 2024, shortly after his 90^th birthday.   The end-of-life centre he used remains confidential.

“This is a goodbye letter I am sending friends to tell them that I am on my way to Switzerland, where my life will end on March 27.

I have believed since I was a teenager that the miseries and indignities of the last years of life are superfluous, and I am acting on that belief.

I am still active, enjoying many things in life (except the daily news) and will die a happy man.   But my kidneys are on their last legs, the frequency of mental lapses is increasing, and I am ninety years old.   It is time to go.

Not surprisingly, some of those who love me would have preferred for me to wait until it is obvious that my life is not worth extending.   But I made my decision precisely because I wanted to avoid that state, so it had  to appear premature.   I am grateful to the few with whom I shared early, who all reluctantly came round to support me.

I am not embarrassed by my choice, but I am also not interested in making it a public statement.   The family will avoid details about the cause of death to the extent possible, because no one wants it to be the focus of the obituaries.   Please avoid talking about it for a few days.

I discovered after making the decision that I am not afraid of not existing, and that I think of death as going to sleep and not waking up.   The last period has truly not been hard, except for witnessing the pain I caused for others.   So if you were inclined to be sorry for me, don’t be.”