- Also called:
- mercy killing
- Key People:
- Jack Kevorkian
- Peter Singer
- Related Topics:
- homicide
- suicide
- physician-assisted suicide
euthanasia
What is euthanasia?
What are the types of euthanasia?
What is the legal status of euthanasia in the United States?
Which countries were the first to legalize euthanasia?
What historical figures believed euthanasia is morally permissible?
euthanasia, act or practice of painlessly ending the life of an individual who is suffering from severe and incurable disease or an incapacitating physical disorder or allowing them to die by withholding treatment or withdrawing artificial life-support measures. Euthanasia is closely associated with physician-assisted suicide (also called medical aid in dying, or MAID), with the primary distinction being who administers the lethal medication.
Types of euthanasia and related measures
- Active euthanasia: Another person (e.g., a doctor) directly ends a patient’s life.
- Passive euthanasia: Allowing death by discontinuing or not providing life-sustaining treatments.
- Voluntary euthanasia: Requested by the patient, who gives consent.
- Non-voluntary euthanasia: A decision is made on an incapacitated patient’s behalf.
- Involuntary euthanasia: Conducted against the will of a competent person; this is considered murder.
- Physician-assisted suicide (medical aid in dying, or MAID): A doctor provides the means for a mentally competent patient to end their own life.
- Voluntarily stopping sating and drinking (VSED): Patient-led choice to stop eating and drinking to hasten death.
- Palliative sedation: Supervised use of medication to keep a terminally ill patient unconscious to relieve severe, uncontrollable suffering.
Legal considerations
The potential of modern medical practice to prolong life through technological means has provoked the question of what courses of action should be available to the physician and the family in cases of extreme physical or emotional suffering, especially if the patient is incapable of choice. Passively doing nothing to prolong life or withdrawing life-support measures has resulted in criminal charges being brought against physicians; on the other hand, the families of comatose and apparently terminal patients have instituted legal action against the medical establishment to make them stop the use of extraordinary life support.
Legal approaches to euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide vary widely. In the United States, active euthanasia—where a physician directly administers a lethal substance—is illegal nationwide, while physician-assisted suicide, in which a patient self-administers prescribed medication, is permitted in a number of states under strict conditions. Internationally, several countries and regions have legalized either euthanasia or assisted death through specific legislation. Most legal frameworks clearly distinguish between these practices and typically allow passive euthanasia, such as withdrawing life-sustaining treatment. Where assisted dying is permitted, it is usually restricted to mentally competent, terminally ill patients and requires multiple safeguards, including voluntary requests and medical confirmation.
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Historical perspectives
The opinion that euthanasia is morally permissible is traceable to Socrates, Plato, and the Stoics. It is rejected in traditional Christian belief, chiefly because it is thought to contravene the prohibition of murder in the Ten Commandments. The organized movement for legalization of euthanasia commenced in England in 1935, when C. Killick Millard founded the Voluntary Euthanasia Legalisation Society (later called the Euthanasia Society). The society’s bill was defeated in the House of Lords in 1936, as was a motion on the same subject in the House of Lords in 1950. In the United States the Euthanasia Society of America was founded in 1938.
The first countries to legalize euthanasia were the Netherlands in 2001 and Belgium in 2002. In 1997 Oregon became the first state in the United States to decriminalize physician-assisted suicide; opponents of the controversial law, however, attempted to have it overturned. In 2009 the Supreme Court of South Korea recognized a “right to die with dignity” in its decision to approve a request by the family of a brain-dead woman that she be removed from life-support systems.