2BR02B

2BR02B by Kurt Vonnegut

2BR02B (2 B R 0 2 B or To be, or naught to be) is a world-famous sci-fi short story. It is written by Kurt Vonnegut, and first time published in a Worlds of If Science Fiction in1962. It is a digest magazine. In 1999 2BR02B became a part of the writer's Bagombo Snuff Box collection. The correct pronunciation of a title of this short story is "To be, or naught to be". It is a reprise of one of the world famous Shakespeare's questions from his bloody drama Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.

Actually, the 2 B R 0 2 B is the telephone number you must type if you want to go through the assisted suicide procedure. You will be helped to die with an assistance of the Federal Bureau of Termination.

The plot of this story is just amazing. The main character lives in the world where no more deaths old people. The aging is no more. It has cured a long ago. So the special government organization controls population very hard. There are forty million people in the USA and this number must be permanent. To prevent the population from grooving there are two very popular procedures. The first one is the killing of newborns, and the second id suicide assisted by the government itself. So if one couple wants to have a baby – someone must be dead. But there are not many volunteers for that because a death occurred not very often and by accident only.

The wife of the main character will give birth to three children, but only one person volunteers to death. Can the father find two more volunteers?