# Can Someone Acutally "Will" Themself to Death? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 11, 2004, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-acutally-will-themself-to-death/259379 "2004-08-11T16:38:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![davida03801](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5e925/32.png) [@davida03801](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davida03801)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2014, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-acutally-will-themself-to-death/259379/21 "2014-09-14T11:42:06Z")
I am sure both my parents did just that. Health declined to the point to go to the nursing home and they both stopped eating within a day or so. Took about 15 days for my mother to go and 12 for my father. My mother went 1st and 18 months later my father. My father was vocal about it. To us kids, and the counselors at the home he essentially said “I am content with my life as it occurred, I have no regrets, I see the kids will carry on the family, my time has come and let it be” ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2014, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-acutally-will-themself-to-death/259379/22 "2014-09-15T00:54:49Z")
**Upon the Death of Sir Albert Morton’s Wife** He first deceased; she for a little tried To live without him, liked it not, and died. - Sir Henry Wotton (1568-1639) ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2014, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-acutally-will-themself-to-death/259379/23 "2014-09-15T01:05:42Z")
> [@fabelone](#): > > I know this thread is old, but Masonic and dolphinboy you just need to improve your googling skills - (or, come to think of it, perhaps Google has improved its googling skills since the time of this post). I googled masonites words «old man drove himself to the funeral home and died» and found this: [http://tinyurl.com/kvdo7vs](http://tinyurl.com/kvdo7vs). Quite a story actually. Wow. Did they ever do a toxicology report? The only reason I ask is that I notice he was a pharmacist, as well as a diabetic. An overdose of insulin is not out of the realm of possibility. And I’m sure there are plenty of other things a pharmacist could use to hasten his death, particularly with diabetes and a bad heart. I’ve certainly got my share of “…and after his/her last family member visited and said goodbye, s/he died,” stories, as well as spouses who didn’t last more than a few weeks after they’d been widowed, even if they were previously healthy. But I bet that for every story like that, I could come up with another of a miserable person telling me how they just wish they could die and stop this suffering, or a widow/er who lives sad and lonely for years. I think there’s a lot of comforting confirmation bias to the idea that we can a) hold on until we get to say goodbye and b) stop the pain of age/illness/lonliness and die when we’re ready to. ---
**Author:** ![Obeseus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbce88/32.png) [@Obeseus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Obeseus)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2014, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-acutally-will-themself-to-death/259379/24 "2014-09-15T02:56:04Z")
How about this one – > **[BOY FORESEES DYING; GIRL GIVEN HIS HEART AS HIS FINAL WISH (Published 1986)](https://www.nytimes.com/1986/01/07/us/boy-foresees-dying-girl-given-his-heart-as-his-final-wish.html)** ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2014, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-acutally-will-themself-to-death/259379/25 "2014-09-15T03:01:54Z")
> [@Obeseus](#): > > How about this one – > [http://www.nytimes.com/1986/01/07/us/boy-foresees-dying-girl-given-his-heart-as-his-final-wish.html](http://www.nytimes.com/1986/01/07/us/boy-foresees-dying-girl-given-his-heart-as-his-final-wish.html) I’m even more amazed that a random match was a successful type. (Well, fairly successful. Her body finally rejected it 3 years later and she died, but still, 3 years is nothing to sneeze at.) ---
**Author:** ![bldysabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@bldysabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bldysabba)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2014, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-acutally-will-themself-to-death/259379/26 "2014-09-15T06:07:13Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > My stepfather’s father was sent to a nursing home because he was having balance problems and couldn’t take care of himself too well. He did fine for a few weeks and his mental facilities were perfectly fine. His wife continued to live at home. One day, she decided that she wanted to move into the nursing home too and get taken care of. She moved in to the same room. My stepfather got a call from his father that night and was told that it was terrible having his mother in the same room because she wouldn’t shut up and kept nagging him. He said that he couldn’t take it. The next morning, they found him dead in his bed. Nicely subverted. ---
**Author:** ![AbigailLemberg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/50afbb/32.png) [@AbigailLemberg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AbigailLemberg)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2014, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-acutally-will-themself-to-death/259379/27 "2014-09-15T06:08:20Z")
> [@Shrinking\_Violet](#): > > My mother and father-in-law were a devoted couple for many years. He died in Sept 1995 after a long illness. At this time she was in good health, but she was never the same … eight months later she went rapidly downhill and died within three weeks from kidney failure. > > We’ve always said she willed herself to die and be with him again. ☹ It was the same with my grandparents. My grandfather was sick for years, but grandmother was quite healthy. But after he died, she fell seriously ill. But she lived for an year with all sorts of illness including hear diseases. we used to say they always willed to die together. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-acutally-will-themself-to-death/259379.md?page=1)