Senicide

In the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the illegal practice of senicide – known locally as thalaikoothal – is said to occur dozens or perhaps hundreds of times each year.[1] The practice is illegal in India.[2]

In earlier times Inuit would leave their elderly on the ice to die but it was rare, except during famines. The last known case of Inuit senicide was in 1939.[3][4][5][6]

According to legends a practice called Ubasute (姥捨, 'abandoning an old woman') was performed in Japan in the distant past, whereby an infirm or elderly relative was carried to a mountain, or some other remote, desolate place, and left there to die. However there is no evidence that this has ever been a common custom.[7]

In Nordic folklore, the ättestupa is a cliff where elderly people were said to leap, or be thrown, to death. While the trope has survived as an urban legend, and a metaphor for deficient welfare for the elderly, researchers agree that the practice never existed.[8][9]

Lapot is a mythical Serbian practice of disposing of one's parents.

Parkin provides eighteen cases of senicide which the people of antiquity believed happened.[10]^: 265 Of these cases, only two of them occurred in Greek society; another took place in Roman society, while the rest happened in other cultures. One example that Parkin provides is of the island of Keos in the Aegean Sea. Although many different variations of the Keian story exist, the legendary practice may have begun when the Athenians besieged the island. In an attempt to preserve the food supply, the Keians voted for all people over 60 years of age to die by suicide by drinking hemlock.[10]^: 264 The other case of Roman senicide occurred on the island of Sardinia, where human sacrifices of 70-years-old fathers were made by their sons to the titan Cronus.