Euthanasia used to refer to an easy and gentle death, but it has come to refer to methods of inducing that kind of death, or more precisely, methods of bringing about death sooner and usually with less pain and suffering. Euthanasia used to be limited to patients in the terminal stage of an illness, but it is now thought to be appropriate in some cases of nonterminal patients, for example, those in a persistent vegetative state and those suffering from an incurable and very painful chronic disease such as multiple sclerosis.

Voluntary Active Euthanasia

Voluntary active euthanasia (VAE) is when a physician accedes to a rational request of an adequately informed, competent patient to be killed, for example, with a lethal intravenous injection of pentothal.

Physician-Assisted Suicide

Physician-assisted suicide (PAS) is when a physician, at a rational request of an adequately informed, competent patient who plans to commit...