The proponents of euthanasia/physician-assisted-suicide are getting a bit overanxious in Oregon these days. Each time the state attempts to define the Oregon law that makes it legal for a doctor to prescribe a fatal drug to a terminally ill patient of sound mind who requests it in writing and orally, the proponents of killing get upset.
Compassion & Choices, the advocacy group that works with Oregonians who want to end their lives, has lobbied the state to stop calling their law "phyisican-assisted-suicide." They claim the word "suicide" is inflammatory and inaccurate because people are getting confused about the decisions rational patients are making to take their own lives.
When the state proposed "physician-assisted-death" as an alternate description of the law, the group again rose in opposition.
So what should you call it when a medical professional provides the means a patient can use to take his own life?
Should you call it "death with dignity"? Or how about an honest word like "killing"?
After all, the doctor who opts to provide the means for another to kill himself is actually acting to hasten death. The doctor could provide comfort care, ethical palliative treatment or psychological evaluation if needed. But all of that would require time, patience and genuine compassion.
It seems to me the nihilists want to mesmerize the public with false images, deceptive words and illogical proposals. They will do anything to assuage the feelings of guilt that follow when someone acts as an accomplince in the direct killing of a loved one or an ailing patient.