Euthanasia is the act of either painlessly causing the death or failing to prevent death from occurring from natural causes in an individual with a terminal illness or in an irreversible coma. The term is derived from the Greek words eus (good) and...

Dispensationalism originated in the nineteenth century in the teaching of the Anglican JOHN NELSON DARBY (1800–1882) (see ANGLICANISM). Darby rejected the organized church as apostate, leading him to become part of a separatist group that later...

Mercy killing. Judaism teaches that life is a blessing from *God and hastening death is the equivalent of bloodshed. The *Shulhan Arukh teaches that a dying person has the same rights as a living person and ‘it is forbidden to cause him to die...

EUTHANASIA COMES FROM two Greek words meaning "good death." When English scholar and statesman Sir Francis Bacon coined the term in the early seventeenth century, he used it to mean the sort of "fair and easy passage from life" that people hoped to...

Euthanasia is the practice of having a medically-assisted death. It is illegal in most countries. Euthanasia is a controversial subject, not only because there are many different moral dilemmas associated with it, but also in what constitutes its...

In 1973 a lady doctor who had killed her sick mother was sentenced by the court in Leeuwaarden to a one-week suspended prison sentence. The judge declared that the court never doubted the defendant's integrity. The trial initiated the present open practice of...

Michael Specter's front-page story on euthanasia in Holland {April 5} includes the contention that "euthanasia has become a regular part of medical life in the United States." The only evidence given for this is the number of members in a euthanasia advocacy group. I...

A look at legislation covering euthanasia and assisted suicide in the industrialized world:ITALY _ Euthanasia is illegal in the heavily Roman Catholic nation. Assisted suicide can carry a sentence of up to 15 years in prison.NETHERLANDS _ Euthanasia was legalized in 2001, but the practice...

The number of euthanasia cases is falling sharply in the Netherlands where mercy killings were legalized six years ago, a government-funded report said Thursday.A survey presented to Deputy Health Minister Jet Bussemaker said terminally ill patients are increasingly choosing to be sedated until they die...

He may be its most recognized practitioner, but Jack Kevorkian did not invent assisted suicide. The practice of assisted suicide is not a modern phenomenon. In ancient Greece, the government gave hemlock to those who wanted it. William Shakespeare...

“Death is not the worst evil, but rather when we wish to die and cannot.” Sophocles (496–406 B.C.) “Euthanasia” is a broad term for mercy killing—taking the life of a hopelessly ill or injured individual in order...

Andrea, an attractive thirty-nine-year-old woman, has been dealing with cancer for five years. She has gone through chemotherapy and radiation, procedures with severe side effects that debilitated her for months and seemed to have aged her by ten years....

On June 26, 1997, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that individuals do not have a fundamental, constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide. This ruling reversed two previous decisions by U.S. courts of appeals. In the first case, Washington State...

There are five main categories of the practice of euthanasia: indirect, direct, voluntary, non-voluntary, and involuntary. The main reason for euthanasia would have to reside upon the unbearable pain of the patient. However, as the painkillers are constantly developing in our world today, the pro side of euthanasia is proportionally weakened.

Debates the issue of Euthanasia. Explores quality of life issues. Describes current options available to patients seeking euthanasia.

Discusses the medical ethics related to suicide and euthanasia of the elderly. Provides a case study.