{"id":5864,"date":"2025-01-28T15:51:15","date_gmt":"2025-01-28T19:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/?p=5864"},"modified":"2025-01-28T15:51:15","modified_gmt":"2025-01-28T19:51:15","slug":"maid-language","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/index.php\/2025\/01\/28\/maid-language\/","title":{"rendered":"Confronting MAID:\u00a0 Misleading Language"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>This is a companion piece to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/index.php\/2025\/01\/14\/confronting-maid-is-it-autonomy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Confronting MAID: Is it Autonomy?<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>by Ms. Boomer-ang<\/p>\n<p>Project Censored observes that on some issues, the most commonly-heard voices &#8220;distract our attention from what we really need to know&#8221; and &#8220;keep us focused on\u00a0minor or misleading parts of the story,&#8221; while &#8220;the important things&#8230;continue moving forward largely free from journalistic scrutiny and public debate.&#8221;\u00a0 This frames crucial public issues in ways that &#8220;marginalize critical and grass roots perspectives,\u00a0shield the powerful from scrutiny, and discourage the public from understanding the deeper forces that are shaping their lives.&#8221;<sup>1<\/sup>\u00a0Whether the writers realize it or not, this applies to much discourse related to Medical Aid in Dying (MAID).\u00a0 Unfortunately, the misleading language is so pervasive that even some people speaking against MAID use it without realizing it can weaken their argument.\u00a0 Could confronting the language help keep the idea of living until one\u2019s body dies naturally thinkable?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>We hear that &#8220;Laws against\u00a0MAID force people to go to another jurisdiction to get killed.&#8221;\u00a0 But what about people going to another state or country to <strong><em>avoid<\/em><\/strong> death-hastening?\u00a0 The most-accessible media leaves the impression that that never happens.\u00a0 But in 2023, when a surgeon told a Canadian woman with abdominal cancer to consider MAID, <a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/10118619\/bc-cancer-agency-wait-times-surgery-united-states\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">she got treatment in Baltimore. <\/a>\u00a0Would this have been possible if Maryland had already had MAID by then?\u00a0 \u00a0I don&#8217;t know what the woman will do if her cancer recurs.\u00a0 But this story shows what people now have to do to stay alive.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>We hear that MAID adds end of life options, but doesn\u2019t it also take options away?<strong>\u00a0 <\/strong>For example, doesn\u2019t it allow care facilities, doctors, and insurance companies to drop alternatives to death-hastening for people in certain conditions?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Some \u201cheroic\u201d efforts to prolong life put so much strain on the body that an individual could live at least as long without them.\u00a0 But what about letting nature take its course, supplemented when needed by help keeping clean, eating, dressing, doing enjoyable activities, and sometimes breathing?\u00a0 Are these tossed out with the \u201cheroic\u201d efforts?<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, doesn\u2019t the availability of MAID change people\u2019s conception of what is appropriate and possible?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>We hear that MAID allows doctors, family members, and friends to stay with a patient until the end.\u00a0 But this implies that the availability of MAID allows the above people, many of whom would have stayed with the patient until the end before, to abandon or threaten to abandon the patient, if they stay alive beyond a certain point.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The observation that, at least initially, a disproportionate number of people submitting to MAID have been white and not poor has been used to assure us that MAID won\u2019t threaten people for being minority and poor.\u00a0 Actually, it tells us more about pressures within upper-class and upwardly mobile families, communities, and identity groups.\u00a0 Are these groups less likely to tolerate a member in certain physical conditions staying alive? Identity group and family can be at least as important as finances in determining life\/death decisions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The observation that most people who \u201cchoose\u201d MAID have insurance is used to assure us that MAID does not threaten people for lacking insurance.\u00a0 Actually, it says more about insurance policies.\u00a0 Having insurance doesn\u2019t mean having all necessary insurance coverage.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>We hear assurances that in jurisdictions allowing MAID, under 5% of deaths occur that way.\u00a0 But what about boasts that death-hastening policies are &#8220;incredibly successful&#8221; and &#8220;popular&#8221;? Could the 5% refer to only the deaths following a strict Voluntary MAID protocol and the actual percent of deaths that are medically hastened be noticeably higher? Even a report written to assure euthanasia was rare acknowledged that in 1990 only about 23% of intentional medical killings were by voluntary euthanasia or \u201cassisted suicide.\u201d\u00a0 The others were by involuntary euthanasia or intentional overdoses of pain-control drugs.<sup>2<\/sup><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/1-blog-Forced-Exit.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-5867\" src=\"http:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/1-blog-Forced-Exit-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/1-blog-Forced-Exit-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/1-blog-Forced-Exit.jpg 467w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Will the idea of a doctor who will not kill become, in most people\u2019s minds, as ridiculous as a soldier who is unwilling to kill?\u00a0 How will the number of people that a typical doctor kills in a year compare with the number of people that a typical soldier kills in a lifetime of combat?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Calling any religious or secular group that opposes MAID &#8220;oppressive&#8221; and &#8220;reactionary&#8221; doesn\u2019t acknowledge groups that have become even more strictly uncompromising in favor of MAID.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>MAID advocates claim there is &#8220;no abuse&#8221; in places that allow it. But what about pressure to submit to <a href=\"https:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/index.php\/2024\/09\/17\/worthiness-threatens-equality\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">death-hastening on people considered unworthy of staying alive<\/a>?\u00a0 In fact, the word &#8220;abuse&#8221; is in danger of being flipped.\u00a0 Will helping a death-eligible person stay alive, even at that person&#8217;s request, be classified as abuse of that person?\u00a0 Is staying alive in certain conditions considered abuse of one&#8217;s loved ones?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Though debates about whether depression alone makes a person MAID-eligible shouldn\u2019t be ignored, they can detract attention from the quiet building of a consensus that death hastening is the only response to certain other conditions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Examples of people submitting to MAID because of economic desperation don\u2019t necessarily turn people against death-hastening.\u00a0 Such examples can cheer some euthanasia supporters that their laws are working. Therefore, in addition, we need to publicize cases of people risking homelessness, bankruptcy, exile, and\/or family disownment for continuing to reject MAID.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Calling MAID an individual&#8217;s personal choice diverts attention from when it is blatantly not.\u00a0 Once euthanasia is legal, doctors can kill patients against their unambiguous requests. One woman reportedly was afraid to go to a hospital because of the danger of euthanasia, but her doctor assured her he would guard her. The woman went to the hospital, and when her doctor went home for a rest, another doctor walked into her room and killed her.<sup>3<\/sup> <a href=\"https:\/\/alexschadenberg.blogspot.com\/2023\/09\/canada-how-death-care-pushed-out-health.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Some victims fight or try to escape their killers.\u00a0<\/a> They\u2019re subdued by sedatives. When someone calls MAID the individual&#8217;s choice, why do we not bring up cases like this?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>We hear that in a MAID jurisdiction, if you don&#8217;t agree with the doctor&#8217;s, care facility\u2019s, or insurer\u2019s policy toward death,\u00a0you can switch.<strong>\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>But are doctors and facilities that participate in death-hastening required to give patients on request a list of doctors who do not?\u00a0 Are insurance companies required to reimburse a person who goes out of state to find a non-MAID doctor?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/1-blog-euthanasia.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-4441 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/1-blog-euthanasia-289x300.jpg\" alt=\"Delaware Governor\" width=\"289\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/1-blog-euthanasia-289x300.jpg 289w, https:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/1-blog-euthanasia.jpg 762w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 289px) 100vw, 289px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>When abortion was imposed, organizations of pro-life gynecologists sprang up.\u00a0 Are equivalent organizations being created for medical specialists who will not participate in MAID?\u00a0 Crisis pregnancy centers sprang up to help people carry pregnancies to term, even against their families\u2019 wishes.\u00a0 Are there shelter homes for people who wish to stay alive comfortably, even against their families\u2019 wishes?<\/p>\n<p>For such shelters, hospice is no longer an appropriate name.\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/archive\/opinions\/2007\/10\/14\/back-off-im-not-dead-yet\/2b4e7e65-e6d7-4e5f-a214-f020aaa19295\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Cancer patient Charlotte Allen has observed<\/a>, \u201cThe hospice movement has historically opposed anything that smacked of euthanasia,\u201d but that was before February 2007, when the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM) came out for death-hastening, or at least <a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/18032319\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cstudied neutrality\u201d<\/a> on it.\u00a0 Neutrality implies there is room for hospices that let people live until their body dies naturally.\u00a0 But Ms. Allen pointed out that there are hospices that, when they cannot directly kill somebody, terminally sedate them.\u00a0 Like abortion clinics, many hospices are in the business of ending lives.<\/p>\n<p>Before my state imposes MAID (probably soon), I want to line up non-participating doctors (whether in or out if state) to go to.\u00a0 I asked two pro-life organizations if they had a list of such doctors, and they did not.\u00a0 I asked a clergyman of a denomination known to oppose euthanasia, and he did not.\u00a0 Nor does he know anybody with my concerns.\u00a0 \u00a0Now I don&#8217;t know where to turn.<\/p>\n<p>In fighting against MAID, should not one try to steer distracting or misleading discourse back to a path that helps the public understand important aspects of the topic?<\/p>\n<p>NOTES<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>John C Collins, Nicole Eigbrett, Jana Morgan, and Steve Peraza, &#8220;The Magic Trick of Establishment Media:\u00a0 News Abuse in 2027-18.),&#8221; <u>Censored 2019,<\/u>(New York:\u00a0 Seven Stories Press, 2018), pp. 119-120.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ol start=\"2\">\n<li>Wesley J. Smith, <u>Forced Exit,<\/u> Times Books (Random House), 1997, pp. 98, 99&#8243;<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ol start=\"3\">\n<li>Ibid., p. 101<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">=========================================================<\/p>\n<p>For more of our posts on euthanasia, see:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/index.php\/2015\/07\/09\/figuring-out-euthanasia\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Figuring out Euthanasia<\/a>: What Does it Really Mean?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/index.php\/2025\/01\/14\/confronting-maid-is-it-autonomy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Confronting MAID: Is it Autonomy?<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/index.php\/2024\/05\/07\/euthanasia-by-poverty\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Euthanasia by Poverty: Stories from Canada<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/index.php\/2023\/09\/19\/maid-in-despair\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MAID in Despair<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/index.php\/2023\/01\/10\/grieving-for-john\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Grieving for John<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/index.php\/2018\/04\/10\/euthanasia-disabled\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">How Euthanasia and Poverty Threaten the Disabled<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/index.php\/2019\/05\/21\/whats-cruel-for-the-incarcerated-is-cruel-for-the-terminally-ill\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">What\u2019s Cruel for the Incarcerated is Cruel for the Terminally Ill<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/index.php\/2024\/10\/01\/assisted-suicide-next-roe-v-wade\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Assisted Suicide as the Next Roe v. Wade: Time to Pay Attention<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/index.php\/2024\/07\/16\/assisted-suicide-is-inequality\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Assisted Suicide is Inequality, Just Like All Legal Violence<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is a companion piece to\u00a0Confronting MAID: Is it Autonomy? by Ms. Boomer-ang Project Censored observes that on some issues, the most commonly-heard voices &#8220;distract our attention from what we really need to know&#8221; and &#8220;keep us focused on\u00a0minor or misleading parts of the story,&#8221; while &#8220;the important things&#8230;continue moving forward largely free from journalistic&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/index.php\/2025\/01\/28\/maid-language\/\"><\/p>\n<p><button class=\"btn btn-smaller btn-outline in_cat\">Read More<\/button><\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-euthanasia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5864"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5864\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5872,"href":"https:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5864\/revisions\/5872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}