Euthanasia << `YOO` thuh NAY zhuh >> is the practice of intentionally and directly ending the life of a person who has a severe and incurable disease or medical condition. Euthanasia most commonly occurs when a person with a terminal (fatal) illness asks a doctor for a lethal injection. The practice is sometimes called mercy killing.
Active euthanasia
involves deliberate actions by a physician who administers a lethal dose of a drug to end a person’s life. In the past, the term euthanasia was used to refer both to active euthanasia and to termination of life-sustaining treatment, sometimes called passive euthanasia. However, this dual use of the term was confusing, so euthanasia now usually refers only to active euthanasia.
People differ in their beliefs regarding active euthanasia. Supporters believe that terminally ill people have a right to a lethal injection or other intervention by a physician to end their lives. Many opponents, however, consider active euthanasia to be a violation of medical ethics and, in some cases, the equivalent of murder. Most countries do not allow active euthanasia.
Termination of life-sustaining treatment.
Stopping the use of life-sustaining medical treatment may also result in a patient’s death. However, this practice is usually distinguished from active euthanasia by the fact that the doctor does not administer a lethal drug or other intervention to directly cause death. Instead, by removing the life-sustaining treatment, the physician allows the underlying disease to take its course. Termination of life-sustaining treatment is legal in the United States and in many other countries. The Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health (1990) that people have the right to refuse life-sustaining treatment. Patients also have the right to stop treatment already started.
In some cases, patients, because of injury or disease, may be unable to express their wishes about medical treatment. For this reason, many people make their wishes known in advance through the use of living wills, or by granting durable powers of attorney to a family member or a friend. In living wills, people state what kind of care they would want if, because of injury or disease, they could not express their wishes themselves. In granting durable powers of attorney, individuals designate a person to make decisions about their medical care if they should lose the ability to communicate such decisions themselves. Living wills and durable powers of attorney are types of advance directives for the planning of future medical treatment.
Medical aid in dying
occurs when physicians provide medication or a prescription to help patients end their own lives. It is sometimes called physician-assisted dying or physician-assisted death. Medical aid in dying differs from active euthanasia because the patients are the ones who take the last step to end their lives.
Medical aid in dying is controversial. Many people believe that terminally ill individuals should be able to use physician-prescribed drugs to end their own lives. Others argue that doctors should not help patients end their own lives, because a doctor’s job is to preserve life and to improve a patient’s condition.
The American physician Jack Kevorkian drew attention to medical aid in dying in the 1990’s by helping seriously ill people end their lives. In 1999, Kevorkian was convicted of murder for performing active euthanasia.
Some U.S. states have legalized medical aid in dying through legislation or a court ruling. However, most U.S. states do not permit the practice. National or state governments in some other countries permit medical aid in dying, euthanasia, or both. Such countries include Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland. But most countries do not allow such practices. 
