The Meaning of “Euthanasia”

The word “Euthanasia” originates from Greek, meaning “good death”. The word conveys two different meanings:

1. The practice of ending a life in a painless manner,

2. Painless death with the assistance of medical operation.

Classification of Euthanasia

Euthanasia can be classified into two different categories:

1. Active Euthanasia:

Patient ending their life with the use of lethal substances or forces, they are unable to endure the pain they are suffering from incurable terminal illness or complete loss of mobility and bodily functions.

2. Passive Euthanasia:

Withholding the use of common treatments/ medication to relieve pain, knowing that it may also result in death.

In the discussion of Euthanasia, it can also be classified according to the following situations:

1. Terminal patients accepting Euthanasia is just to shorten the time towards the end of their life.

2. Non-terminal patients not accepting Euthanasia may live for a rather long period of time, and may not necessarily be suffering. However, their quality of life is rather low and would be a heavy burden to society and their family.

Debate over Euthanasia

From medical and legal perspective, the debate over Euthanasia is very intense.

1. Passive Euthanasia:

A lot of doctors believe that, terminal patients suffering from their sickness, their lives should not be extended with the use of medications, they should just be taken care of, and so they can reach to the end of their life peacefully. People wanting Euthanasia can write down their will and give permission to a doctor, to carry out Euthanasia according to their will. But this “Euthanasia will” is not a legal document in all countries.

2. Active Euthanasia:

This type of Euthanasia is very controversial. From a legal perspective, this type of Euthanasia is hard to distinguish from actual murder; the boundaries are hard to define. Besides some individual countries where active Euthanasia is legal, most other countries (such as US, Japan, Russia, Switzerland, Norway, Poland, Germany and etc.) define active Euthanasia as a particular type of murder.

Since Euthanasia is such a controversial issue, only a few countries allow Euthanasia, for example, Netherlands, Belgium and some American states.