Branding Matters

Getting Our "Positioning" Right

New Zealand has a problem with youth suicides.  There are too many of them.  Way too many.  We posted recently that a national newspaper had this to say:

The deaths from the Taupo Bay area in the Far North follow the Herald on Sunday's reports on a similar cluster [of youth suicides) in Kawerau two years ago. These, and the country's relentlessly high suicide rate, are now prompting calls for a nationwide suicide prevention publicity programme similar to that used to combat depression - and for government funding to be more effectively targeted.

The secular world is finds itself in serious in conflict over young people taking their own lives.  On the one hand there is this brute reality that every fibre of our being screams out that it is wrong. But, on the other hand, secular amorality also insists that there can be nothing immoral or unethical about the act itself.  So we are filled with pity and guilt without any ethical warrant.  We are all dressed up with nowhere to go.  We know we are sad, but unsure whether we ought to be.


Now comes the newest contribution of the secularists: by means of changing our language and terminology the whole matter of youth suicide can be re-framed into something far more condign and acceptable.  In Europe, for example, some authorities are starting to speak about "youth euthanasia". 

Only a few countries have legalized euthanasia or anything approaching it. In the Netherlands, euthanasia is legal under specific circumstances and for children over the age of 12 with parental consent (there is an understanding that infants, too, can be euthanized, and that doctors will not be prosecuted if they act appropriately). Elsewhere in Europe, euthanasia is only legal in Luxembourg. Assisted suicide, where doctors help a patient to die but do not actively kill them, is allowed in Switzerland. [Washington Post.   Emphasis, ours]

Belgium is now thinking about following suit:

In Belgium, where euthanasia is now legal for people over the age of 18, the government is considering extending it to children — something that no other country has done. The same bill would offer the right to die to adults with early dementia. Advocates argue that euthanasia for children, with the consent of their parents, is necessary to give families an option in a desperately painful situation. But opponents have questioned whether children can reasonably decide to end their own lives.

This offers a way to cut the Gordian Knot of a society wracked with guilt over youth suicide, and yet having not the faintest idea why it should be so upset.  By taking a leaf out of progressive ethicists in Europe, we in New Zealand could be spared a lot of indecision and pain.  Everyone knows that euthanasia is the coming new "rights" cause.  People apparently have a right to kill themselves because of--well anything really.  It's all to do with treating people with dignity.  If they really want something, affirmation of their humanity and semi-divine state requires, demands even, that we step aside and let them get on with it.  "If you really want to do it, you can,"  is the order of the day.

We are told that a growing number of proponents for this enlightened idea are to be found.  It is only a matter of time, and all that.  By rejecting the canted phrase, "youth suicide" and replacing it with "youth euthanasia" we can learn to be accepting of young people taking their own lives, on the one hand, and be spared the wracking guilt, on the other.  We will even come to glory in it over time. 

Above all, we will no longer have to front up to global criticism and snide jibes as New Zealand's high youth suicide rate.  It's not suicide, dearie.  It's euthanasia. Much more sophisticated and enlightened.  For centuries men have honoured Socrates and gloried in his hemlock cup--the dignity and humanity of it all.  By judicious "re-branding" the death of our young people will be seen in the proper light: as the highest expression of autonomous human dignity, the very glory of our species.  Imagine if we really got serious and achieved world leadership in youth euthanasia services. 

But, it would have a financial spin off as well.  We could market ourselves to the very important youth segment of global tourist trade. Instead of the slogan "NZ--100% pure"--which is so trite now anyway--we could market ourselves as the most progressive, free, liberal, and tolerant society in the world.  "Come to NZ, to euthanise in peace and dignity; save yourself the return flight." 

Of course, under our enlightened privacy arrangements, just as with going on the pill and the little trips to the abortion clinics, no disclosures to, nor permissions from, school or family medical authorities would be needed.  Just go off to school, and get done--like any other normal day.  No-one will be the wiser.  And your friends and parents--well, as soon as they are conditioned to think that it was definitely not suicide but euthanasia, they will not feel the slightest remorse or sadness or guilt. 

It's what you really wanted.  All's well that ends well.