Words derive their power from the original word – Meister Eckhart

My first post argues that the legalization of physician-assisted suicide is not a good thing for our (or any) country to accept. I hold strongly to this opinion for good reason, the most important being that it is inherently against the natural law that binds us to preserve and protect life whenever possible.

But before start making that argument, I want to start small, looking to the reasons why people support end of life options.

According to the Death with Dignity National Center website, 7 in 10 Americans support the idea of having a legislated end of life option.

Supporters of assisted death argue that people diagnosed with terminal illness have a right to choose death on their own terms. Such patients are already dying, and so are not choosing suicide, but one death (via their choice) over the other (via a pending natural death).

The term “suicide,” however is not preferred by terminally ill patients because of the negative connotations, as exemplified in the reality of suicide hotlines. Some “value-neutral terms” include: death with dignity, assisted dying, physician-assisted death, and medical aid in dying.

But arguing that to end one’s life by a lethal prescription is not suicide denies the fact that the ingestion of a medication overdose is a deliberate choice to end one’s life.

Let’s take a look at how the word came about.

suicide – noun. “deliberate killing of oneself”

estimated origin 1650s

From Latin sui “of oneself” (genitive of se “self”)

from PIE *s(u)w-o- “one’s own,”

from root *s(w)e- (see idiom) + -cidium “a killing,”

from caedere “to slay” (from PIE root *kae-id- “to strike”)

The purpose of documenting a patient’s request to end his/her life is to ensure that the choice is a deliberate one, made in a stable state of mind.

And medication is prescribed to the patient who will ingest the lethal dosage of drug, to end his/her life and not the life of someone else.

Is this not a sui-cide?

Absolutely, the term kill has powerful connotations. But that sounds like the choice — the power — proponents are asking for.