Isn “kill” too strong a word for euthanasia and assisted suicide?
No. The word “kill” means “to cause the death of.”(9) In 1989, a group of physicians published a report in the New England Journal of Medicine in which they concluded that it would be morally acceptable for doctors to give patients suicide information and a prescription for deadly drugs so they can kill themselves.(10) Dr. Ronald Cranford, one of the authors of the report, publicly acknowledged that this was “the same as killing the patient.”(11) While changes in laws have transformed euthanasia and/or assisted suicide from crimes into “medical treatments” in Oregon, Washington, Belgium and the Netherlands, the reality has not changed – patients are being killed. Proponents of euthanasia and assisted suicide often use euphemisms like “deliverance,” “death with dignity,” “aid-in-dying” and “gentle landing.” If a proposed change in public policy has to be promoted with euphemisms, this may be due to the fact that the use of accurate, descriptive language would make its chilling reality t
