Abstract
DEAR SIR,
Medical language is a double-edged sword that can illuminate or befuddle depending on its use. 1 In this regard, I note that Robert Kaplan's informative piece about doctors who kill includes a rather distracting abuse of English. 2 In coining the term ‘clinicide’ for the title of this article, and for his forthcoming book, Kaplan runs the risk of confusing his audience, who quite reasonably may think it refers to the killing of, rather than by, a clinician. The dictionary defines -cide as a Latin-derived combining form, indicating a person, thing or process that kills that which precedes the suffix. Just as fungicide kills fungi, any pedant will tell you that matricide, fratricide and filicide refer to the killing of, respectively, one's mother, brother, and child. It follows that clinicide should denote killing of, rather than by, one's clinician. Clinicide thus describes an interesting and important phenomenon, and will be an apt title for a book – but not this one.