By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC

I posted here about media stories reporting on a planned live-streaming of an assisted suicide — with the intended victim seemingly paid. It was a hoax.

But that’s the thing about good hoaxes, they are of necessity grounded in substantial reality, thereby allowing those taken in to believe it is true. After all, BBC and 60 Minutes (among others) have both aired actual assisted suicides (BBC) and euthanasia/murder (Kevorkian murdering Thomas Youk on 60 Minutes). If a taped suicides and murder would be shown, why not live? But it wasn’t this time, apparently. Good.