Passive and Active Euthanasia

In euthanasia, the death of the patient should be intentional but not accidental. People must intent or agree to painlessly kill one of their own to relieve him or her from a certain suffering or a state of coma that cannot be reversed. Additionally, the intention of the death of patient must be a merciful death intention. In this case, the only difference between the euthanasia and murder of the patient is the intention or the motive of agents doing the doing the action. In euthanasia, the intention of killing the patient must be a good intention. Also, it may involve withdrawing food and water so that the patient may die as result of body desiccation and famishment. In this type of euthanasia, the death of the patient is not done by any individual.

The withdrawal of life-sustaining materials from the patient is the cause of the death. For example, when treatment is withdrawn from the patient, lack of medication will cause the death of the patient. This type of euthanasia is also known as ‘letting go” which refers to the process of letting the patient die without showing support to him or her. The intention of this type of euthanasia is to end the suffering that the patient is going through (Garcia, 2017). For example, when a patient suffering from cancer is experiencing a severe pain, he or she may instruct the doctor to inject him or her with a lethal medicine so that he or she may die painlessly to relieve him or her from the pain because the disease is incurable.