A hiss overwhelmed the room. We were on a stage at Lincoln Center, talking about Kansas. And if the audience walked in wanting me to be the enemy, I had just inadvertently confirmed that I was. All it took was a word.
The event was the screening of documentary based on the Thomas Frank bestseller "What's the Matter with Kansas?" We'd just watched a part of it focusing on George Tiller, the late-term abortion doctor who was murdered in 2009 on a Sunday in the church he regularly attended. It was a cruel, cowardly, evil act. I was the token pro-lifer on the panel discussing all things Kansas in the Big Apple, and, as far as those gathered were concerned, I had just played to type. I used the m-word. Murder. Had you pointed this out to me, I would have, in all innocence, been bewildered by my offense. Fellow panelist Joe Conason, who wrote a column for Salon.com and was known to be close to Bill and Hillary Clinton, came to my defense.
"She didn't mean anything by it," is what I recall him saying, sternly and chivalrously. I quickly learned that the proper word to use was "assassination," because it had been a "political" murder. It was still a murder. It was evil. Evil seemed the most important thing to acknowledge.
Can we at least agree that murder is murder and evil is evil? I feel similarly in the wake of Charlie Kirk's murder. The man is dead because he had the audacity -- the fortitude -- to go on college campuses and encourage young people to think and debate.
Former prime minister of the United Kingdom Theresa May is getting a nationwide hiss-like reaction for insisting that the assisted-suicide bill the House of Commons passed this summer is about suicide. It is medically prescribed death. I wonder if those blasting May would prefer, instead of calling it assisted suicide, just going ahead and calling it murder, as doctors are being recruited to do harm as a matter of protocol. I would easily go along with that classification, because it gets away from the lie that assisted suicide is mercy and makes it clearer that it is actually abandonment and elimination.
The devil wants us to believe we are beasts, nothing more than our base desires and usefulness as objects for others. Assisted suicide buys into these lies. Is there anything more precious than a human life? And an innocent, vulnerable, weak human life at that? Only God knows what miracles can happen when given time. There may be reconciliations that happen at a hospital bedside, where nothing much can be done except to make peace and prepare for the end.
So, call it suicide. Or -- don't twist my arm --certainly murder will cover it, too. Charlie Kirk was murdered. As was George Tiller. Both killings were wrong. Both were evil. Call them assassinations. That's fine. Just don't try to justify them or water them down. Evil was done. Let us unite in rallying against it. Period. Murder is murder. Medically assisted suicide is not only suicide, but murder. To pretend otherwise is to devalue life and justify evil. Even when it's well-intentioned, it's murder. It's suicide. To not acknowledge that is deadly -- and to more than just individual lives.
(Kathryn Jean Lopez is senior fellow at the National Review Institute, editor-at-large of National Review magazine and author of the new book "A Year With the Mystics: Visionary Wisdom for Daily Living." She is also chair of Cardinal Dolan's pro-life commission in New York, and is on the board of the University of Mary. She can be contacted at klopez@nationalreview.com.)
Editor’s Note: Do you enjoy Townhall’s conservative reporting that takes on the radical left and woke media? Support our work so that we can continue to bring you the truth.
Join Townhall VIP and use the promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your VIP membership!
Join the conversation as a VIP Member