The paper examines the language used to describe pain and surgery in the trials and the media discussions of the killing of Tracy Latimer by her father. Descriptions of proposed surgical procedures, that were planned before Tracy was killed, exaggerate the intrusiveness of surgeries to be performed so as to suggest that surgery would be worse than death. Language was used to make the case that killing Tracy was somehow justified because Tracy was in relentless pain, and the proposed surgery would only have caused even more pain. Therefore, the assumption is made that surgery would have been worse than death for Tracy. In reality, Tracy experienced some pain and discomfort, but her pain was manageable, and would most likely have been eliminated by surgery. (Contains 3 footnotes.)