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Euthanasia “is the intentional shortening of a patient’s life, by act or omission, as part of his or her medical care. It literally means “a good death” and it refers to a wide variety of issues related to death and dying. There are four categories of euthanasia: voluntary or involuntary; passive or active. Voluntary euthanasia refers to a person’s free choice to take actions which will end his or her life and involuntary euthanasia is when someone else chooses the ultimate direction for the sufferer at hand. Passive euthanasia refers to a process of allowing someone to die without intervention while active euthanasia accepts intervention to hasten the patient’s death. Because it has both legal and ethical implications, it continues to provoke controversy today. When I wake up in the morning and get out of bed, I look forward to the day. I look forward to whatever it brings in the way of activities and general living. However this is not the case for everyone, because for some exceptions their day means lying motionless in a hospital bed stricken by a terminal illness. For others it may mean just waiting for the mercy of God to relieve them from their sentence, since medicine can do no more for them. The pain for some is so great that the medicines they require to block it, consequently leave’s them semi-conscious, with little or no way of communicating and yet the end result, is an assured death. In such examples, the extreme pain and additional loss of autonomy, is so distressing that one may request euthanasia as a way out.
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