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Euthanasia is the practice of mercifully ending a person’s life in order to free them from a disease that has no cure, unbearable suffering, or shameful death. The Greek meaning of euthanasia is “good death”. There are a few different types of euthanasia. Active euthanasia is putting someone to death for sympathetic reasons, like when a doctor administers a lethal dose of medication to a patient. Passive euthanasia involves not doing something to prevent a patient from dying, as when doctors refrain from using an artificial respirator to keep a terminally ill patient alive. Voluntary euthanasia is when a person asks to die. Nonvoluntary euthanasia is to end the life of a person who is not capable of making a request to die. Assisted suicide is when someone gives information, guidance, and the means to a person to enable them to take their own life. Euthanasia has been around in some form for centuries. In ancient Greece and Rome helping others die was sometimes considered permissible. For example, in the ancient Greek city of Sparta newborns with severe birth defects were put to death. In several ancient societies voluntary euthanasia for the elderly was an approved custom. As Christianity became more widespread and powerful, euthanasia became morally and ethically offensive and was viewed as a violation of God’s gift of life. Today most branches of 4 Christianity, Judaism, and Islam condemn active euthanasia, although some permit restricted forms of passive euthanasia. Western laws have generally treated the act of assisting someone in dying as a form of punishable homicide. However, in more recent times the laws have become less based on religion. People who support the legalization of euthanasia have argued that under the principles of individual liberty, such as those expressed in the United States Constitution, individuals should have the right to die as they choose. Most countries, including the United States, still have restrictions on euthanasia. In the 1930’s the first organizations to promote the legalization of voluntary euthanasia were formed in the United States and Great Britain.
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