by Kurt Vonnegut

The title of Kurt Vonnegut’s sci-fi story 2 B R 0 2 B by Kurt Vonnegut, which is pronounced 2 B R naught 2 B, is a take on Shakespeare’s Hamlet’s famous line. In the world of the novel, assisted suicide is the norm and 2BR02B is the phone number you dial to reach the Federal Bureau of Termination. To control over population someone must volunteer to die before a new birth is allowed by the government. A man’s wife is about to have triplets, and as such three people must die to make room for the kids. Grandfather volunteers, but two more must die.