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A spade is a spade: why correct language is so important

By Paul Russell - posted Monday, 29 August 2016


"Merriam-Webster defines suicide as:

"The act or an instance of taking one's own life voluntarily and intentionally especially by a person of years of discretion and of sound mind."

"The Oxford Dictionary puts it more simply:

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"The action of killing oneself intentionally"

Dictionary.com goes with:

"The intentional taking of one's own life."

"All three definitions have something in common: they don't depend in any way on the reason a person chooses to end their life, just that they do so on purpose."

This last point should have suicide prevention organisations in Australia squirming in their seats. Why? Because by their silence they seem to refuse to accept the fact that assisted suicide is suicide.

A respected colleague attended the Suicide Prevention Australia National Conference in Canberra in July and, while supportive of this significant event, noted some significant concerns:

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"I was not the only person to comment that despite the spike in suicide numbers in the 65 and over age group there was not one presentation during the two and a half days dealing with that subject."

"One of my specific interests was the way in which public promotion of euthanasia and assisted suicide might be having a cross-over effect among those with suicide ideation. Despite selecting 'assisted suicide' as an area of interest from the fourteen subjects on offer there were no presentations about it and nor were there any informal get-togethers arranged for others who may have had an interest in the subject."

Just as suicide holds no respect for persons, suicide prevention needs to be a whole of society concern. Any differentiation between types of suicides or age and other cohorts or reasons for suicide suggests a tolerance of suicide; a dangerous mixed message that young people, in particular, are quick to identify. It would work to re-inforce the notion held by many in the disability community that the advent of euthanasia and assisted suicide would create a two-tiered approach; some get suicide prevention - others get suicide assistance.

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This article was first published on Hope.



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About the Author

Paul Russell is the Director of HOPE: preventing euthanasia & assisted suicide www.noeuthanasia.org.au.


Paul is also Vice Chair of the International Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Other articles by this Author

All articles by Paul Russell

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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