*Introduction

The term Euthanasia come from the Greek word 'eu' meaning
"good" , ' thanatos' meaning "death"
• according to the world medical association euthanasia
means:"deliberate and intentional action with a clear intention
to end another person,s life under the following conditions:the
subject is a competent informed person with incurable illness
who voluntary asked for ending his life;the person who is acting
knows about the state of this person and about his wish to die
and is doing this action with an intention to end life of this
person;the action is done with compassion and without any
personal profit.

• *background
Hippocrates ( 460 - 370 BC)
Euthanasia was practiced in Ancient Greece and Roman
civilizations as they opined that who had no interest in living, or
who thought life as a burden.
• 1870 In this year, Samuel Williams suggested the use
of morphine and analgesic medications for assisting quick
and painless death.
• 1885 Exactly 15 years after Samuel Williams raised the
proposal, the American Medical Association strongly
denied the use of analgesic for euthanasia.
• Beginning of 20th century mercy killing and assisted
killing already entered the minds of the public
• 1905 A bill for making it legal was circulated in Ohio, but
it failed. A similar bill was introduced in the next year,
which also failed.
• 1935 The first group for legalization of euthanasia,
called Voluntary Euthanasia Legislation Society (VELS),
was founded by a group of doctors in London
• 1938 National Society for the Legalization of
Euthanasia (NSLE) came into existence
• 1940 Non-voluntary euthanasia was practiced for the
first time by German physicians, to eliminate the diseased
and disabled Germans in closed gas chambers
• 1945 It was estimated that 300,000 Germans had been
killed
• 1986 Doctor Joseph Hassman was charged for
administering a lethal dose to his mother-in-law
• 1999 Euthanasia became a public issue, with the
imprisonment of Dr. Jack Kevorkian for conducting
voluntary euthanasia on Thomas Youk (52), who was in
the final stage of ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis)
- Charged with secondrdegree murder, and he served eight
years in prison (from 1999 to 2007)
- 130 otherpatiems
• 2001 The euthanasialaw was adopted in Belgium, this
law defines conditions for doctors to avoid penal
punishment
• 2008 U.S. state of Washington legalizes assisted suicide.

*Forms of euthanasia :
*Active euthanasia means ending life of a suffeeing person on
his own request by another person,mostly by a doctor,and
most of the time by lethal injection.
• this form has two varities : non-voluntary and involuntary.
*Passive euthanasia means acceleration of death by letting the
patient die naturally.
*assisted suicide-the suffering person dies with another
persons help.
*types of euthanasia:
There are 3 types of euthanasia
1-voluntary euthanasia
2-involuntary euthanasia
3-non-voluntary euthanasia

*1. voluntary euthanasia:

1. euthansia performed with the patient's consent is called
voluntary euthanasia.
2. voluntary euthanasia is the practice of ending a life in a
painless manner.voluntary euthanasia(VE)and physician
assisted suicide(PAS)has been the focus of great controversy in
recent years.
3. voluntary euthanasia is at the request of a fully competent
person who wishes to die.

2. Involuntary euthanasia:
1. which performed on a patient against their will.
2. involuntary euthanasia occurs when euthanasia is performed
on a person who would be able to provide informed
consent,but dose not,either beacuse they do not want to die or
beacuse they were not asked.
3. involuntary euthanasia occurs when a dying person could
have been but was not asked for their consent,or when
arequest for continued treatment is refused.attaching DNR
notices to the medical notes of elderly or disabled patients
without their knowledge can be considered a form of
involuntary euthanasia.
3. Non-voluntary euthanasia:
1. where the patient is unable to give their informed
consent,for example child euthanasia.
2. non-voluntary euthanasia(sometimes know as mercy
killing)is euthanasia conducted when the explicit consent of the
individual concerned is unavailable,such as when the person is
in a persistent vegetative states,or in the case of young
children.
3. non-voluntary euthanasia takes place when a person is
unable to consent due to age,physical and/or mental
incapacity.an example of this world be the decision to stop
artificial feeding and hydration for someone in a persistent
vegetative state.
What is the difference between voluntary, involuntary and
non voluntary euthanasia?
*voluntary euthanasia : when the person who is killed has
requested to be killed.
*non-voluntary euthanasia* : when the person who is killed
made on request and gave no consent.
*involuntary euthanasia: when the person who is killed made
an expressed wish to countary.
*Euthanasia can be active and passive
*1- active euthanasia : active euthanasia describes cases where
an action is performed with the intention of causing death.
An example of this would be giving a lethal injection. This is
currently illegal in the UK
active euthanasia which defined as the intentional act of
causing the death of a patient experiencing great suffering, is
illegal in France, whereas allowing patient to die is authorized
by law under certain conditions
2. Passive euthanasia : passive euthanasia describes cases
where death is intentionally caused by inaction. An example of
this would be withdrawing or withholding artificial nutrition or
hydration or the use of a ventilator.
Passive euthanasia is usually defined as withdrawing medical
treatment with the deliberate intention of causing the patient's
death. For example, if a patient requires kidney dialysis to
survive, and the doctors disconnect the dialysis machine, the
patient will presumably die fairly soon.
*what is the difference between passive and active
euthanasia ?

*Active euthanasia : is when death is brought about by an act,

for example when a person is killed by being given an overdose
of pain killers
*passive euthanasia : is when death is brought about by ab
omission i.e when someone lets the person die. This can be by
withdrawing or withholding treatment
The moral difference between killing and letting die. Many
people make a moral distinction between active and passive
euthanasia. They think that it is acceptable to withhold
treatment and allow a patient to die, but that it is never
acceptable to kill a patient by deliberate act.

Reasons:
• Unbearable pain
• Right to commit suicide
• People should not be be forced to stay alive