Assisted Suicide by Any Other Name...

posted by Josh Goodman

Washington State is voting in November on an initiative, championed by former Gov. Booth Gardner, to legalize what many people would call "physician-assisted suicide." That's not what the ballot will call it, however. The Seattle Times explains:

In a victory for Washington's proposed Death With Dignity initiative, a judge on Friday refused to add the words "physician-assisted suicide" to the ballot or official voters pamphlet description.

"It is a somewhat loaded term," said Thurston County Superior Court Judge Chris Wickham. He said it conjures up images of Jack Kevorkian, the Michigan physician who claimed to have helped more than 100 people die before being convicted of murder in one of the cases.

Instead of "suicide," voters will read that Initiative 1000 would allow some terminally ill patients "to request and self-administer lethal medication" prescribed by a doctor. Wickham's decision largely upheld a description written by the state attorney general's office.