The Globe poll also shows strong support for two state ballot questions, which require more than 50 percent approval to pass. A full 68 percent of voters, including a majority in both parties, said they support a voter initiative that would make physician-assisted suicide legal for terminally ill patients, compared with 20 percent of respondents who said they oppose the measure. Likewise, 69 percent of voters in the poll said they support a measure to make marijuana legal for medical use. That question also registered bipartisan support.The Globe reporters refer to the ballot question as physician-assisted suicide.
That's not right.
In yesterday's Globe opinion piece, A method for dying with dignity, by Marcia Angell, she says:
This is not a matter of life versus death, but about the timing and manner of an inevitable death. That is why many prefer the term “physician-assisted dying” to “physician-assisted suicide.” In the usual suicide someone with a normal life expectancy chooses death over life. Terminally ill patients don’t have that choice.Taking a look at the State's Voter Information page, we can see that calling death with dignity physician-assisted suicide is just wrong.
Image: Elections: 2012 Information For Voters. Question 2
QUESTION 2: Law Proposed by Initiative Petition
Prescribing Medication to End Life
No where in the question's summary does it refer to suicide.
Only in the Against argument does suicide show up:
AGAINST: Question 2 restricts patients’ choices and control by enabling suicide as a substitute for quality health care.I'd like to see a correction.
