Euthanasia
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 suicide, knowingly provides that patient with the medical means to commit suicide and the patient uses those means to commit suicide.
Voluntary Passive Euthanasia
Voluntary passive euthanasia (VPE) is when a physician abides by a valid rational refusal of treatment by an adequately informed, competent patient knowing that doing so will result in the patient dying, for example, complying with the refusal of a ventilator-dependent patient with motor neuron disease to receive further mechanical ventilatory support.
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