He reported that in ancient Sardinia, the Sardi considered it a sacred duty to kill their elderly relatives with a club or by forcing them to jump from a high cliff.
[5] Since there is little evidence of these killings, such as court records or very rare eyewitness accounts, it has been suggested that most of these reports are chilling myths about cruel practices of foreign peoples or past times.
Schulte criticized in a review of sources on native North America the quality of the data, the role of hearsay and uncredited copying of information.
[9] Brogden also noted that very often in close family groups, it is the son, after an intensive discussion among the elders, who carries out the killing.
Pousset found in an overview of some ethnological studies or collections (Koty, 1934;[10] Simmons, 1945;[11] Glascock, 1982;[12] Maxwell/Silverman, 1989;[13] Südkamp;[14] Beauvoir, 1996[15]) that 162 ethnic groups worldwide practiced senicide (2023[5]).
It has been claimed that only in a "few idyllic pastures for older people" was there no senicide, not even reflected in legends, folk and fairy tales (see the collection of Dee L. Ashliman) or in ethnographic studies (Brogden/ Nijhar, 2000[16]).
In senio-euthanasia or involuntary euthanasia, the old person is actively killed by strangulation, drowning, stabbing, by a club, shooting, submersion in an oil-bath, being pushed or forced to jump from a cliff, hypo- or hypermedication, and other methods.
Modern forms of senicide are senio-euthanasia via neglect, stopping various life-supporting devices, and under- or overmedication in family or old age homes are more clandestine.
Risk factors for the older generations include low income, food insecurity, religious indifference, greediness of potential heirs, and hostility.
“Each year, more than 400 older people are killed in Kenya’s coastal region, with over 1,000 facing death threats” according to the founder of an old age rescue centre near Malindi.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought to light attitudes of ageism in policy and private life which neglected the value and vulnerability of the aged ones heavily or completely.
[23] 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.
[27][28][29][30] 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.
[31] According to Korean folklore, a practice called "Goryeojang" or "Goryeo burial" was performed in Korea in the distant past.
While the trope has survived as an urban legend, and a metaphor for deficient welfare for the elderly, a researcher argues that the practice never existed.
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.
[35]: 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.