Euthanasia

Euthanasia When a person commits an act of euthanasia, he/she brings about the death of another person because he/she believes that the latter’s present existence is so bad that he/she would be better off dead. The word euthanasia originated from the Greek language: eu means “good” and thanatos means “death”. The meaning of euthanasia is “the intentional termination of life by another at the explicit request of the person who dies” (Religious Tolerance). However, euthanasia has many different meanings, which tends to create confusion. It is important to differentiate between the various terms used in discussing euthanasia. Passive Euthanasia refers to removing some form of life support which allows nature to take its course. Forms of life support include: removing life support machines, stopping medical procedures and medications, stopping food and water, or not delivering cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Active Euthanasia refers to causing the death of a person through a direct action, in response to a request from the person. Physician Assisted Suicide refers to a physician supplying information and/or the means of committing suicide to a person, so that he/she can easily end his/her own life. This may also be referred to as voluntary passive euthanasia. Involuntary Euthanasia refers to the euthanasia, life, suicide, person, assisted, ill, religious, physician, voluntary, terminally, support, hamel, dying, death, result, physicians, law, form, die, active, suffering, state, refers, patients, medical, means, legal, he/she, tolerance, terminal, request, patient, own, murder, moral, illness