House Approves Eliminating ‘Lunatic’ From Federal Law
By The Associated Press December 6, 2012
WASHINGTON (AP) – The word “lunatic” will be stricken from federal law
under legislation that passed the House on Wednesday and is headed to
President Obama for his signature.
The Congressional action is the latest effort to remove language from
federal law that has become outdated or is considered demeaning. Two
years ago Congress took out references to “mental retardation.”
“The term ‘lunatic’ holds a place in antiquity and should no longer have
a prominent place in our U.S. code,” said Representative Robert C.
Scott, Democrat of Virginia, shortly before the 398-to-1 vote in the
House. The word, derived from the Latin word from moon, arises from
ancient beliefs that people could become “moonstruck” by lunar
movements.
The legislation cites one instance in banking regulation that refers to
the authority of a bank to act as a “committee of estates of lunatics”
on guardianship issues.
The Senate passed the measure in May; it was sponsored there by Senators
Kent Conrad, Democrat of North Dakota, and Michael D. Crapo, Republican
of Idaho.
“Federal law should reflect the 21st century understanding of mental
illness and disease, and that the continued use of this pejorative term
has no place in the U.S. code,” Mr. Conrad said.
The legislation had the backing of mental health groups, including the
coalition organization Mental Health Liaison Group, which said that
using outdated and offensive terms served “to perpetuate this
stigmatization” against people with mental health conditions.
The lone “no” vote was cast by Representative Louie Gohmert, Republican
of Texas, who said in a statement that “not only should we not eliminate
the word ‘lunatic’ from federal law when the most pressing issue of the
day is saving our country from bankruptcy, we should use the word to
describe the people who want to continue with business as usual in
Washington.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/06/us/house-votes-to-eliminate-lunatic-fr
om-laws.html?_r=0&pagewanted=print