Defining life

Just as we are about to celebrate the birth of hope and new life in the world, this news item is circulating about redefining the…uh…terms of life.

In annual meeting, the American Public Health Association adopted 22 policies addressing issues of “public health” from flu to trans fat to Iraq. Among them was this:

LB-06-02 End-of-Life Choices — Urges health educators, policy-makers, journalists and health care providers to recognize that the choice of a mentally competent, terminally ill person to choose to self-administer medications to bring about a peaceful death is not “suicide,” nor is the prescribing of such medication by a physician “assisted suicide.” Urges terms such as “aid in dying” or “patient-directed dying” be used to describe such a choice.

Changing the perception does not change the reality.