1. Euthanasia

2. Learning Intentions:  To be able to identify key terms and definitions.

3. Euthanasia  What is euthanasia? The word ‘euthanasia’ comes from the Greek roots eu (well) and thanatos (death), but currently means much more than ‘good-death’.  Oxford English Dictionary provides the definiton of euthanasia as:  “The action of inducing a gentle and easy death. Used [especially] with reference to a proposal that the law should sanction the putting painlessly to death of those suffering from incurable and extremely painful diseases.”  House of Lords select committee on medical ethics define euthanasia as:  “A deliberate intervention undertaken with the express intention of ending a life to relieve intractable suffering.”  [report, HL paper 21-1, session 1993-1994, 20]

4.  Taking steps to end the life of a person can be taken either with or without the patient’s consent or against the patient’s will. Consequently the following distinctions can be made:

5. Voluntary euthanasia  Where a competent person requests steps to be taken which will result in their death.

6. Involuntary euthanasia  Where a competent person is killed against their wishes.

7. Non-voluntary euthanasia  Where the patient lacks the competence to make an end-of-life decision.

8. Assisted Suicide  Any act which intentionally helps another to commit suicide.  (Lewis, P. (2007) Assisted dying and legal change (Oxford: Oxford University Press), p.5)

9. Physician Assisted Suicide (PAS)  A procedure where the doctor prescribes a lethal medication to enable a person to die, but the person administers the dose, not the doctor.

10. Permanent Vegetative State (PVS)  A neurological condition found in people with severe brain damage who are in an apparent state of wakefulness but without detectable conscious awareness.

11. Withdrawing and withholding treatment  According to the law, both the act of withdrawing and act of withholding treatment are omissions. Committing an omission is not legally wrong unless there is a legal obligation to act which there will not be should a patient validly refuses treatment or where it is not in the patient’s best interests to receive the treatment.  Two key areas of controversy arise surrounding this question.  a) Whether the distinction between an act or omission is morally sufficient to justify the conclusions drawn by the law.  b) Whether withdrawing (as opposed to withholding) life- sustaining treatment or care is properly characterised as simply an omission.

12. Palliative care  Medical and nursing care for terminally ill patients which has the primary aim of alleviating pain and suffering rather than achieving a cure.

13. Living will  This is a short-hand term for something known as an advance decision or advance directive. The term ‘living will’ can be misleading and the Mental Capacity Act 2005 uses advance decision instead.  It is a declaration of a patient’s wishes concerning the provision or withholding of future medical treatment which may be legally binding in certain circumstances.

14. Active euthanasia  Something is actively done to cause the patients death. i.e. and injection of a lethal substance.

15. Passive euthanasia  Something is not done which results in the patients death. i.e. Medical treatment is not given.