Euthanasia, active

Euthanasia, active
The active acceleration of a "good" death by use of drugs etc, whether by oneself or with the aid of a doctor. The word "euthanasia" comes from the Greek — "eu", goodly or well + "thanatos", death = the good death — and for 18th-century writers in England that was what euthanasia meant, a "good" death, a welcome way to depart quietly and well from life. Today the most commonly understood meaning of euthanasia is more than this old dictionary definition of dying well a good and easy death. Euthanasia refers, for example, to the situation when a doctor induces the death with a lethal injection, of a patient who is suffering without relief and has persistently requested the doctor to do so. Suicide, whether irrational or rational, for unrelated reasons is not euthanasia. Nor is the forced killing of another person. The Netherlands is the only country in the world where euthanasia is openly practiced. There, euthanasia and assisted suicide are defined by the State Commission on Euthanasia. Euthanasia is the intentional termination of life by somebody other than the person concerned at his or her request. Assisted suicide means intentionally helping a patient to terminate his or her life at his or her request. Euthanasia is the termination of life by a doctor at the express wish of a patient. The request to the doctor must be voluntary, explicit and carefully considered and it must have been made repeatedly. Moreover, the patient's suffering must be unbearable and without any prospect of improvement. Pain relief administered by a Dutch doctor may shorten a patient's life. As is the case in other countries, this is seen as a normal medical decision in terminal care and not as euthanasia. Euthanasia is a matter of continuing controversy, a tinderbox for debate, an issue on which positions range widely and include enthusiastic advocacy, guarded acceptance, outright rejection, and vehement condemnation, equating euthanasia with murder.

Medical dictionary. 2011.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат

Look at other dictionaries:

  • euthanasia, active — n. Actively doing something to kill someone, such as administering poison. The Essential Law Dictionary. Sphinx Publishing, An imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc. Amy Hackney Blackwell. 2008 …   Law dictionary

  • euthanasia, active/passive — Euthanasia is the action of directly causing the quick and painless death of a person, or omitting to prevent it when intervention was within the agent s powers. It is usually understood that euthanasia is performed only with the intention of… …   Philosophy dictionary

  • euthanasia — euthanasia, active/passive …   Philosophy dictionary

  • Euthanasia — For mercy killings performed on animals, see Animal euthanasia. Part of a series on …   Wikipedia

  • active euthanasia — See euthanasia, active/passive …   Philosophy dictionary

  • euthanasia — eu·tha·na·sia /ˌyü thə nā zhə/ n: the act or practice of killing or permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured persons in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy – called also mercy killing; eu·tha·na·sic / nā zik, sik/ adj Merriam …   Law dictionary

  • active euthanasia — active euthanasia, the killing of a person who is incurably ill or injured, especially by the administration of a drug or other treatment that causes or hastens death …   Useful english dictionary

  • Euthanasia and the law — Efforts to change government policies on euthanasia in the 20th century have met limited success in Western countries. Country policies are described below in alphabetical order, followed by the exceptional case of the Netherlands. Euthanasia… …   Wikipedia

  • Active euthanasia — The active acceleration of a good death by use of drugs etc, whether by oneself or with the aid of a doctor. The word euthanasia comes from the Greek eu meaning goodly or well + thanatos meaning death. So, euthanasia is literally the good death.… …   Medical dictionary

  • Euthanasia in the Netherlands — In 2002, the Netherlands legalized euthanasia. Euthanasia is still a criminal offence but the law codified a twenty year old convention of not prosecuting doctors who have committed euthanasia in very specific cases, under very specific… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”