Many right wing activists such as Jack Kevorkian and Timothy Quill have risked prison.
to bring to the public's attention the need for legislation allowing an individual a personal.
choice to die. An individual choosing to die rather than face a long, painful and.
demoralizing death is not a new concept. This concept has existed as long as human.
beings have had the power to reason and make decisions.
History supports an individual's right to choose suicide as a way to die. Ancient.
Greek and Roman societies supported an individual's right to choose. The term used.
for the humane ending of life is 'euthanasia.' The New Lexicon Webster's Dictionary of.
the English Language defines 'euthanasia' as: "the deliberate painless killing of persons.
who suffer from a painful and incurable disease or condition, or who are aged and.
helpless". Euthanasia is derived from the Greek words "eu" meaning good and.
"thanatos" meaning death. Literally translated euthanasia means "good death." Francis.
Bacon is credited, in the seventeenth century, with introducing the usage of the word euthanasia to mean an easy, painless happy death.
There are two distinct forms of euthanasia: active and passive. Passive euthanasia refers to someone's helping another person to die by withholding or withdrawing life sustaining treatment, including the administration of food and water. It is also known as euthanasia by omission. Passive euthanasia could also be the rejection of ordinary or extraordinary means to preserve or sustain life. The Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) order on a terminally ill patient's chart is a form of passive euthanasia. Passive euthanasia is also allowing nature to take its course without medical intervention.
Passive euthanasia takes place in the final sages of a terminally ill patient's life. It .
makes no difference whether the patient refuses to undergo a complicated, painful, .
experimental operation or refuses an ordinary blood transfusion.