Illinois Swallows the Hemlock of Assisted Suicide

With a scribbled signature by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, the Land of Lincoln became the 12th state (plus the District of Columbia) to legalize physician-assisted suicide.

The new law, which takes effect in September, euphemistically describes assisted suicide as "medical aid in dying"—a pretense that prescribed poisonous overdoses are somehow equivalent to administering healing treatments. Give me a break. The point of "care," is well, care. The point of assisted suicide is immediate death.

So, why do I insist on using "assisted suicide" instead of "medical aid in dying?" Because this issue is too important and too much is at stake to fall for propagandistic word engineering.

The term assisted suicide is both accurate and descriptive. "Suicide" means to take one's own life. "Assisted" means to have help in performing an action, in this case, intentionally becoming dead. In other words, it describes what was done, not why.

In contrast, "medical aid in dying"—or MAID as it is usually called—is euphemistic and intended to deflect from the reality of what advocates seek to normalize. Ditto calling poisonous overdoses prescribed for suicide, "medication," which these laws always do. How can we have a meaningful debate when one side hides behind terms that are designed to lull people into a dangerous complacency?