In A Word…Don’t Call It Suicide
By Rev. John Brooke
AB 651 - The California Compassionate Choices Act - Paragraph 7197.7: "Actions taken in accordance with this chapter shall not, for any purpose, constitute suicide, assisted suicide, mercy killing, or homicide, under the law."
Suicide is a pejorative word in the minds of most people, one with obvious negative connotations. Many in the media and the public use the phrase "assisted suicide," whose negative nature is promoted by opponents of physician aid in dying. The Compassionate Choices Act, currently being considered by the State Legislature, simply permits the writing of a prescription by a willing physician to assist a competent adult already in the dying process who asks to hasten death in a humane and dignified manner. That is compassionate medical assistance when the patient’s disease can be neither cured nor adequately palliated. It is not assisted suicide.
Suicide is associated in the public mind with a solitary, often violent, irrational, tragic act, usually by a clinically depressed person, destroying a life which could go on. Until recent years, suicide was widely considered a crime, and by people of some religious faiths it is still viewed as a sin.
California law permits a physician, at the request of a dying patient, to withdraw life support, or to sedate at high levels to relieve pain, with the certain result that death will occur rapidly. Such a death is not considered a suicide. Writing a prescription which a capable dying patient may or may not take to achieve a hastened death is presently illegal. It is a distinction without a difference. AB 651 would change that.
The option for physician aid in dying in extreme circumstances may actually be a suicide prevention measure. Many persons over the years have stated that if they knew that they would have a compassionate medical option if their life at the end became unbearable, they would be willing to carry on much longer, knowing that they could, if necessary, request the means to a peaceful end of life.
Patient choice is at the heart of AB 651. Euthanasia is a phrase sometimes used to describe a death induced by a physician injecting a patient with a lethal dose of medication. But its main use in our culture is in relation to the "euthanizing" of pets, which is a form of mercy killing. There is no choice involved. This practice is specifically prohibited by AB 651.
Language matters, for language affects attitudes. Few people are pro-abortion. A large majority of Americans are pro-choice. Almost no one is pro-suicide or pro-euthanasia or pro-mercy killing. However, a significant majority of Californians do believe that a mentally capable dying adult should have a right to choose a humane and dignified death when continued life has become unbearable. The opposite choice, wanting to continue no-matter-what until the very last possible breath, remains intact.
Robert Risley, who first proposed a Death with Dignity Act for California, wrote, "Americans must fight to win the right to a humane and dignified death. It is simply the right to be free to decide our own fate, a fundamental concept of Western civilization. As long as we do not infringe upon or endanger the rights of others, we should have the unfettered right to determine our own destiny, especially at life’s end.... This freedom to choose is not suicide.... It is the rational ending of life where all hope is lost in the face of end-stage disease."
Suicide is not death with dignity. Let’s not use the term when referring to compassionate choices. AB 651 is a positive, not a negative.