As everyone knows, expected lifespans have increased dramatically over the last ten years. According to top genetic scientists, a 100-year-old today can expect to live until 150. That’s fantastic, unless you are the government that has to foot the bill to keep all these geriatrics alive, healthy and well-fed. Although people may well be able to live until they are 150, since most people still retire at 75, the elderly are becoming an unaffordable burden on the state, and the society compelled to look after them.

Now, China has come up with a unique ‘solution’ to its spiraling elder-care health and social security costs. The government has embarked on a massive nation-wide advertising campaign exposing the benefits of state-sponsored assisted dying. The advertising campaign slogan translates loosely as: “Today is a lovely day to die, isn’t it?”

Not only that, the one-party state has promised valuable Sesame Credit score boosts (which translate into lucrative career and social standing benefits for individuals) to family members who can persuade their elderly matriarchs and patriarchs to opt-in to the national voluntary euthanasia program.

The media campaign has attracted angry criticism from human rights activists around the world who fear that the family perks for any ‘participants’ in the euthanasia program may result in a false incentive to hasten the death of vulnerable elderly people.

China’s government shot back at the naysayers by reiterating that the program was “completely voluntary” and, all things considered, for the “greater good” of the patients, their families and “harmony” in the nation.