Is there a better word than suicide?

(Editor’s note: The following is by attorney Bill Simmons, lecturer on end-of-life choices. You can reach him through his website Final Exodus, or email to vermilionsim@gmail.com. — KTB)

Suicide to most of the English-speaking world is a loaded word connoting death by gun, jumping from high bridges, carbon monoxide poisoning and slashed wrists. For that reason, many in the right-to-die (RtD) movement, believe that an alternate term is needed for the kind of death we believe in.

As an outgrowth of the 2014 Chicago meeting of the World Federation of Right to Die Societies, I headed an ad hoc international working group to find an alternate. There were 17 in the group, including such notables as Rob Jonquiere from the World Federation and Dr. Rodney Syme from Australia. After working many months by email, the group could only come up with a euphemism, the well-known death with dignity. (For a copy of the group’s report, send me an email.)

I and others of the group (names scattered below) were not satisfied with the phrase and felt strongly that one word was needed. We came up with the word dignicide.

The word was proposed by Lenn Bernstein and researched by Hugh Wynn. It was apparently first used by an Englishman, Richard Stainton, in 2011. He said, “When the struggle becomes too much to bear, a stigma-free word like dignicide would give recognition to the conscious and courageous decision being taken and would lessen for loved ones the sense of failure suicide often prompts.” (The Guardian 24 Aug 2011).

Dignicide connotes death with dignity. Its detractors say it literally means death to dignity. Leaders in the RtD movement, particularly Faye Girsh and Derek Humphry, don’t like the word. As Derek has said, “call a spade a spade.” That is, as narrowly and legally defined, indeed self-deliverance is suicide!

I gave a presentation promoting the word at the Federation’s 2016 Amsterdam meeting. It fared no better.

Those of us promoting dignicide used Survey Monkey to see how it would be received by the general public in the English-speaking world. While some liked it, most respondents did not. No doubt there is negativity in “cide.” (For some specific pros and cons, read page 14 of FEN’s Fall 2019 magazine.)

In the intervening years, nothing better has turned up.

All the states that have adopted medical aid in dying (MAiD) emphatically say death under these laws is not suicide. Then, what is it? It is strange that laws say what something is not, but fail to say what it is. This creates a hole, a void. Filling the hole left by voiding suicide with multiple words does not seem to do it, but dignicide does seem to do it. Of course, the word also signifies a self-chosen death that does not fall within the confines of MAiD.

One of the group, Dan Carrigan, a leader in the RTD movement in North Carolina, promoted the word in his state. It was catching on there but got no traction elsewhere. Dan’s experience tells me that, with proper promotion, the word can catch on. When it does, in my opinion, it will become common usage.

Is anyone interesting in taking up the challenge with me? There are several approaches that could be pursued. Create a page in Wiktionary. Seek leaders in the RTD movement worldwide who like the term. Find RTD organizations that will get behind it. Get North Carolina going again. Try to change the minds of the RTD leaders who disfavor the word. Write newspaper opinion pieces. One of the best avenues might be to try to get a major news organization to use it, or even a minor one.

For those of you who would like to give this a try with me, please send me a note at my e-address below. If there is sufficient interest, I will form another ad hoc group to set an approach — and give dignicide a hard push this time.