Is that what you think being 60 is? Jesus Christ, you people are pathetic.
60, to many people, especially to a man like Bourdain who "lived the life", heroin addictions and all, is the last point of when he's truly the man he used to be. When he's without constant pain which may reduce him to doing the same thing that used to determine his life, relying on opiates to "cling on". Everything beyond that is just a gradual decline. Not everyone wishes to descend to nothingness. They'd prefer to meet it "head on" at their highest point, when they're still strong enough to respect themselves.
To chastise an old man for making a personal choice is ridiculous. There are men and women, between 15 to 25 years old, who kill themselves. Those are the people you should worry about. Not an old man like Bourdain. He apparently had enough, and to me, that's fair enough.
My grandfather's brother was diagnosed with cancer into his old age. He took matters into his own hands and killed himself with a shotgun, after spending the day out in the solitary quietness of nature. Was he a coward? Absolutely not. He had done enough at that point, to prove that he was pretty far from that.
Others judged him for what he did, wished that he had just "clinged on", not for himself, but for them. To keep suffering, to alleviate their own pain and sense of loss. But he was past the point of judgment. So is Bourdain.
A man over 60 years old, has surely earned the right to choose the date of his own death.
What in the fuck?
I suppose you've never been to an elderly care, or a mental ward? Well, I have been. In many cases, people will live respectfully to old age. But lets not pretend as if every person gets to do that. In some cases, death would've been preferable.
I've seen people beyond their 80's, completely forgotten by the society, their sons and daughters dead, or elderly themselves, their grandsons having long since "moved on". Nobody to remember them, nobody to mourn. These people fade out alone, and are buried alone.
I reckon most people, certainly, would prefer to die when still surrounded by their family, when still remembered by others.