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Assisted Suicide Creates a Culture of Death
Our modern culture takes pride in twisting the meaning of words. Abortion is now “maternal healthcare,” and physician-assisted suicide is now “death with dignity.” Unfortunately, this disturbing change in semantics has real life impacts, subtly changing our culture’s views on these issues and normalizing the devaluation of human life. As activists attempt to pitch physician-assisted suicide to the world, it has devastating consequences for our society.
A report from the Journal of Ethics in Mental Health found that when assisted suicides are present in a society, the number of non-assisted suicides increases dramatically. It should be obvious to many that when ending one’s own life in a hospital is seen as a solution to suffering, non-assisted suicide will become accepted as well. This is the sad truth of the situation, and it cannot be covered up with weak attempts to change the semantics.
The state of Oregon has long been a proponent of physician-assisted suicide. Death with Dignity, an organization devoted to the subject since 1989, “believe[s] individuals with terminal illness have a right to die with the same autonomy and agency in which they lived their lives.” Sadly, as Oregon has embraced a culture of death, they have seen a spike of youth suicides in recent years. In 2018, suicide was the leading cause of death for youths across the state.