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Originally Posted by Alex
. . .the more likely course to success is to not try and get rid of the word altogether but rather to give it up and let it be a word meaning "boneheaded" or "stupid" and do our best to just make sure it no longer actually has a clinical or real person definition. Kind of like has happened with moron and idiot. We still have the general non-clinical meaning but no actual morons or idiots are offended because there is nobody that actually falls under the label any more.
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Section 26 of the California Penal Code lists the categories of people who may not be prosecuted for the crimes they commit. Among these are "persons who are mentally incapacitated." This is new language, added last year, to replace the previous description, "idiots."
A year or so earlier, I attended a continuing legal education session where the presenter was going through the statute. He got to "idiots," looked out at us and said, "Ah, if only." The room broke up.