Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide

While medical life-ending behavior occurs in a great many jurisdictions, only very few have explicitly legalized euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide, or both. There are various forms of medical life-ending behavior that are classified as euthanasia. These include “active voluntary euthanasia,” when medical intervention takes place, at a patient's request, to end the patient's life; “passive voluntary euthanasia,” when medical treatment is withdrawn or withheld from a patient, at the patient's request, to end the patient's life; “active nonvoluntary euthanasia,” when medical intervention takes place, without the patient's request, to end the patient's life; and “passive nonvoluntary euthanasia,” when medical treatment or life support is withdrawn or withheld from a patient, without the patient's request, to end the patient's life.

In addition, there is physician-assisted suicide: suicide using ...