ASSISTED SUICIDE/EUTHANASIA activists are sure a restless bunch. They never seem able to settle on the right terminology to convince people to support legalizing mercy killing. First, it was euthanasia, a perfectly fine word that had a meaning generally akin to today’s concept of hospice before being hijacked by the right-to-die crowd in the early 20th century.
When “euthanasia” didn’t rouse people to march in the streets demanding a right to be killed if they get cancer, activists began using the terms “deliverance” and, more recently, “physician-assisted suicide” to assure a wary public that they would only be dispatched upon request. But apparently these terms don’t poll well, especially any term containing the word “suicide.” So, activists dropped “assisted suicide,” and replaced it with the currently favored euphemism, “aid in dying.”
