Martin Amis calls for euthanasia booths
25th January 2010
Ever controversial author Martin Amis has called for euthanasia booths to be installed on street corners to curb the ageing British population.
According to Amis, who is behind the critically-acclaimed books Money and London Fields, the suicide booths would allow pensioners to end their lives with a 'martini and a medal'.
He claimed that Britain could find itself facing a civil war between the old and the young if his advice is not adhered to.
In an interview with the Sunday Times, Amis asked: 'How is society going to support this silver tsunami?'
He claimed that medical science has been so successful that people are living longer than they should.
'There's a certain point where your life slips into the negative,' he said, adding: 'There should be a way out for rational people who've decided they're in the negative.'
The idea of public euthanasia chambers is not a new one and has cropped up in literature and television on numerous occasions, including in Star Trek and Futurama.
Amis has also courted controversy with his new book The Pregnant Widow, which looks at the sexual revolution of the 1960s.
Last year, the writer, who has been accused of being a misogynist, said he had been told the book would get him 'in trouble with the feminists', but claimed that it was actually 'a very feminist book'.