Euthanasia

Euthanasia is the intentional ending of a person’s life to relieve suffering. It is distinguished from other end-of-life practices by the role of intent, consent, and who performs the life-ending act.

Physician-Assisted Suicide: A practice in which a physician provides the means for a person to end their own life. Unlike euthanasia, the person performs the final life-ending act.
Voluntary Euthanasia: Euthanasia performed at the competent, voluntary request of the person whose life is ended. Consent is the defining feature of this form.
Euthanasia in the Netherlands: A legal framework permitting euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide under statutory due-care criteria in the Netherlands. The Netherlands is a prominent jurisdiction with a regulated euthanasia system.
Medical Ethics: The study and practice of moral principles in healthcare and biomedical research. Euthanasia brings clinical duties and moral limits into direct conflict.
Withholding or Withdrawing Life-Sustaining Treatment: The decision not to start or to stop medical treatment that sustains life. Death follows the underlying condition rather than an intentional life-ending intervention.
Non-Voluntary Euthanasia: Euthanasia performed when the person cannot give informed consent and has not made an applicable prior request. It raises questions about decision-making when consent is unavailable.
Euthanasia in Belgium: A legal framework permitting euthanasia under statutory conditions in Belgium. Belgium provides a distinct national model for regulating euthanasia.
Autonomy: The capacity and right of people to make informed decisions according to their own values. Supporters often ground voluntary euthanasia in respect for personal choice.
Palliative Sedation: The monitored use of medication to reduce consciousness and relieve otherwise intolerable suffering near the end of life. Its aim is symptom relief, not causing death.
Involuntary Euthanasia: Euthanasia performed against a person’s expressed wishes. It is non-consensual and widely treated as homicide rather than an ethically permissible form of euthanasia.

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