Michael Cook
Editor
BioEdge
Editor
BioEdge
As a journalist, I tend to be impatient with fussy terminological precision, a character flaw which occasionally raises the hackles of readers with more exacting standards. However, I do believe that terminology shouldn't ever be fudged, especially in public debates over bioethical issues.
That’s why I was so disappointed to read this admission by Gerald Dworkin, an academic who has been lobbying with Compassion & Choices for assisted suicide in California. Professor Dworkin is the author of a 1998 book, Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide. Looking back, he admits that it was injudicious to use straightforward language in the book’s title:
“I should note that the use of the term ‘Physician-assisted suicide’ is now politically incorrect, for tactical reasons. I understand that the popular prejudice against suicide makes it more difficult to rally support for the bills I favor. And even some potential users of such measures object to their death-certificate reading ‘suicide’. But to list the cause of death, as many such bills do, as the underlying disease process seems to me simply a lie. What caused the person diagnosed with terminal cancer to die now, rather than somewhat later, is the secobarbital the patient took. But learning to keep silent about such terminological matters was only one of many lessons I had to learn.”
What a shame it is to win a debate by muddying the waters. As Samuel Johnson said, “It is more from carelessness about truth than from intentional lying, that there is so much falsehood in the world."
| This week in BioEdge | |
by Michael Cook | Jun 13, 2015
Would it reach different conclusions?by Michael Cook | Jun 13, 2015
Doctors have been given permission to remove food and water from Vincent Lambert, a severely brain-damaged, 38-year-old Frenchman.by Xavier Symons | Jun 13, 2015
The Arnhem Court of Appeal has cleared a 74-year-old Dutch man who helped his mother commit suicideby Xavier Symons | Jun 13, 2015
A Belgian woman has given birth using transplanted ovarian tissue that she had removed when she was a child.by Xavier Symons | Jun 13, 2015
UK researchers are hailing the development of a ‘safer’ and more ‘cost-effective’ pregnancy-screening test.by Michael Cook | Jun 13, 2015
Further revelations have raised questions about medical confidentiality.by Michael Cook | Jun 13, 2015
One of the grand old men of American bioethics, he is a reminder of a broader and more communitarian view.by Michael Cook | Jun 13, 2015
What message will legalisation send to unbalanced people?by Michael Cook | Jun 13, 2015
Two bills authorising assisted suicide have been presented to the Bundestag.BioEdge Suite 12A, Level 2 | 5 George St | North Strathfield NSW 2137 | Australia Phone: +61 2 8005 8605 Mobile: 0422-691-615 Email: michael@bioedge.org |
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