Wednesday, June 1, 2011 posting by Alex Schadenberg on the blog of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (http://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com/2011/06/more-americans-believe-that-assisted.html)
More Americans believe that Assisted Suicide is morally wrong
The recent Gallup poll in America shows that 45% of those polled thought that physician-assisted suicide was morally acceptable whereas 48% thought that physician-assisted suicide was morally wrong. What was interesting about the findings was that the same poll found that 15% of those polled thought that suicide was morally acceptable and 80% thought that suicide was morally wrong.
Bioethicist Wesley Smith commented on these findings in his blog in this way:
Very interesting, and for me, alarming. Why would 45% support doctor assisted suicide as morally acceptable, but only 15% “suicide?” I think it is the authority of the physician and the implication of suicide for terminal illnesses (which is, of course, baloney). But suicide is suicide. The more people accept the former, the greater will be the acceptance of the latter. Indeed, I did an NPR interview on KPCC this AM, in which almost all the younger callers said that if people really wanted to die, we should make it easy for them. Very alarming, reflecting in my view, a loss of care and connection with our fellows.
These polling numbers continue to confirm why the euthanasia lobby is attempting to change the language of the debate. At the 2006 World Federation of Right to Die Societies conference, that I attended, one of the discussion topics surrounded the use of language. They stated that using the term “Aid in Dying” eliminated the problem of the connotation of suicide and it brought the euthanasia lobby up in the polls.
In other words, don’t be duped by the language, when the euthanasia lobby is speaking about “Aid in Dying” they mean euthanasia or assisted suicide.