*Lapot *is the Eastern Serbian practice of senicide. I found the wikipedia article unclear on the issue, and Penn and Teller briefly referenced it on an episode of Bullshit (season 8, episode 8 entitled “Old People”) that made it sound like a current practice. I wondered if this is mere apocrypha? Was it just something that a few Eastern Serbian villages did a long time ago? Pure fabrication? Or current practice?
Anyone who is knowledgeable about senicide in modern times and would like to expound, I would also welcome that discussion. Thanks!
It might be outside the scope of your question, but “soft” or informal forms of this are practiced worldwide almost. The US and Europe are probably the exception to the rule, no one is going to deperately try to keep a 95 year old vegetative stroke victim alive with life support machines, when there probably are not even any in the country.
Absolutely. The “Lapot” described in the article is murder, not just letting a sick person die. Supposedly, they kill their parents (or other elderly relatives) once they become a financial burden on the family. It all sounds quite fishy to me. Don’t forget, it wasn’t that long ago that Serbia was involved in a major war with its neighbors. This could very easily be a bullshit propaganda story.
Killing the elderly was definitely a common practice historically. It’s certainly still practiced in many places today. I don’t know if Serbia is one of those places, but if so, I’d wager we especially see it in poor, rural regions, and probably not in the open.
I recall reading about the practice in Eskmo and northern Cree cultures. Basically, if food was getting tight in the middle of the winter, bad hunting etc., the priorities were the hunters, then children, then the women and then the old folks. The joke is about putting the seniors on an ice floe; but in fact, they were given a small supply of food and left behind when they moved camp. It was for the greater good of the whole community.
This to me seems a unique aspect of subsistence living - sometimes decisions have to be made about priorities. Nobody over the next hill will arive with enough food to keep you all alive. I dont see how the same applies to a connected agricultural community, unless the whole country is starving. Similarly, the danger of mercy killing for those incapable or infirm is - how do you know where to draw the line. Even in biblical times, it seems the lepers dying a slow death were not summarily executed.