Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
Michael Deacon challenges the use of language in the UK assisted suicide debate in his December 3rd article: MPs daren’t admit the awful truth about ‘assisted dying.’
Deacon challenges the language that is used to hide the reality of assisted suicide as Orwellian. Deacon writes:
As Parliament debated the merits of enabling sociopaths to coerce the vulnerable into a premature death, a peculiar little row broke out. The Tory MP Danny Kruger – who opposes the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill – had just uttered the words “assisted suicide”. Horrified, the Labour MP Cat Eccles – who supports the bill – leapt up to complain.Deacon continues:
“The honourable gentleman is using incorrect language,” she protested indignantly to the Speaker. “It is not suicide. That is offensive. I ask him please to correct his language.”
The same reaction happens in Canada where euthanasia is legal under the term MAiD. Euthanasia was legalized in Canada by creating an exception to homicide (murder) in the criminal code. "MAiD" activists regularly say it's not euthanasia, it's MAiD, but what is MAiD?
This was a curious intervention. Because, even if one supports the bill, one should at least be able to see that “assisted suicide” is an accurate description of what is being proposed. A patient, having asserted that he or she wishes to end his or her own life, will deliberately ingest a substance that will cause his or her death. That, incontestably, is suicide. So it can hardly be “incorrect” – let alone “offensive” – to refer to it as such.Deacon completes the article by stating
Indeed, if any term is “incorrect”, it’s “assisted dying” – because it’s a euphemism, chosen by campaigners to make what they want sound more palatable. Much like the euphemisms George Orwell noted in his 1946 essay, Politics and the English Language.
In effect, then, the euphemism “assisted dying” isn’t designed merely to fool the public. It’s designed to help its advocates fool themselves.
Thank you Michael Deacon for reminding me to only use accurate language. Euthanasia is about killing people (literally) and assisted suicide is about assisting a suicide.
3 comments:
Thank you. Thou shall not kill people, including yourself!
I am responding to a video of Kelsi Sheren that you appeared on - What caused the government in 2016 to make this exception under homicide?
It was private citizens who lobbied the courts, and the Supreme Court of Canada pushed it back on the government to make these changes This happened while we had a conservative government in place, the liberals inherited it. I am no fan of Trudeau, and I look forward to him being gone, but people have the history wrong and blame this on the liberals - the ball got rolling under a conservative government.
Regarding Stephanie Green, she was doing a very good service with her minute by minute second by second video, she wasn't wasting time - She was correcting numerous wrongs - hardly a waste of time. One could argue Kelsi Sheren is wasting time driving a false narrative on YouTube as a content creator.
How is Stephanie Green wasting her time? Kelsi Sheren is a combat veteran - but she was not attacking Kelsi Sheren as a combat vet - Kelsi came out and made statements that were incorrect - so Stephanie Green responded, she wasn't responding to a combat veteran, she was responding to a person spreading misinformation. Kelsi can't have it both ways - attack a field of medicine that Stephanie Green is passionate about - but expect to be immune to rebuttals because she is a combat vet?? Come on - how ridiculous! Kelsi goes on to say that she has healed from a million issues (seriously?? 1,000,000 issues???) that Stephanie Green is killing people for - can you or Kelsi name 10 issues that she has healed from, and provide evidence of people who Stephanie Green has performed a MAID on that had those exact same issues - just ten out of ONE MILLION 0.001% - not a hard ask, and given that mental health diagnosis are permitted for a MAID I am very curious. If you want to be taken seriously, stop with the exaggerating.
Are you and Kelsi insinuating your content isn't worth being pushed back against?? Kelsi drew the attention of an expert in the field and accuse them of wasting their time?? I guess neither you nor Kelsi feel as passionate as you seem to come across on your videos.
I agree that mental health has no place for a MAID- The entire event with medical assisted death being suggested to Canadian soldiers should never have ever happened. That was 100% wrong.
The assertions on the Jordan Peterson video were also wrong, claiming that a paralytic is given first, that’s an insult to healthcare providers, giving a paralytic first would be cruel and it does not happen.
I believe in access to a medically assisted death in the face of a terminal illness, such as stage four pancreatic cancer - why should I not be able to ask my doctor to euthanize me? I’m using the term euthanize because it seems that’s the term those against MAID want to use, I could say murder I could say whatever word you want. At the end of the day, if I am diagnosed with a terminal iillness, I’m not interested in spiralling downhill reliant on opiates and strong pain medication to make an easy death. I want to go out on my terms when I’m ready. And no one should be able to stop that....why would you want to try and stop that??
The parallel to the Nazis I completely disagree with you, yes there’s some verbiage that’s the same however that does not put us on the same level as the Nazi's - are you saying that everytime the words compassion and care are used - it is reminiscent of the Nazi's???? Are we rounding up people in Canada putting them in concentration camps to murder and exterminate? I don’t see cattle cars full of people rolling down the rails. I don’t see brown shirts in the street with muzzled, vicious, dogs, intimidating citizens. I don’t see medical experiments going on with children and the incapacitated...... When people were euthanized in Nazi Germany did they have a choice? People have a choice in Canada if they want to ask for an assisted suicide or a euthanizing, did the Nazi Germany?
There are a lot of things to say about your comments. If you read my blog articles you will quickly begin to learn what has happened in Canada. Email me at: info@epcc.ca and I will send you some key explanatory articles.
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