When words get in the way

One thing I admire about the prime movers of the anti-birth cause ("pro-choice" is a misnomer so I'm using the term "anti-birth" as it describes the position they take more accurately, as pointed out by a commenter over at Generations for Life in one discussion) is their creativity when it comes to coming up with attractive language. They know how to use words and phrases that are likely to elicit compassion and will give their agenda a noble quality -- never mind if those words actually get in the way of communicating the truth. "Perfumed language" is how Wesley J. Smith calls it.

Advocates for assisted suicide know that when their agenda is described accurately and descriptively--they lose. So, they are ever about the task of trying to come up with new gooey euphemisms to describe assisted suicide--to be, if you will, the sugar that helps the hemlock go down.

The assisted suicide legalization bill has been amended to use even more perfumed language than before to describe assisted suicide. The bill used to authorize terminally ill adults to "make a request for medication for the purpose of ending his or her life in a humane and dignified manner."

But, apparently even that boilerplate of assisted suicide bills is too graphic. The bill now reads,"...make a request for medication prescribed pursuant to this bill to provide comfort with an assurance of peaceful dying if suffering becomes unbearable." Of course, unbearable suffering isn't defined so the term is rendered meaningless and becomes whatever the suicidal patient deemed it to be.

Read the whole thing at Second Hand Smoke