Active Euthanasia is defined as which of the following?

• A. Doing something to kill somebody, such as administering a medicine
• B. Refusing life-prolonging treatment
• C. Withholding basic needs
• D. Allowing natural death to occur

Answer: (A)

Active euthanasia involves a deliberate action to end a person’s life. The best way to describe it is doing something to kill somebody, such as administering a medicine, because the defining feature is an intentional act by another person to cause death. This contrasts with passive forms, where the decision is not to start or continue life-prolonging treatment, or where care is withheld or allowed to fail, and death occurs as a result of the underlying illness rather than an action taken to end life. Withholding basic needs or allowing natural death to occur are not actions aimed at directly causing death. In some discussions, you’ll hear about physician-assisted death versus euthanasia, where the former involves the patient self-administering the lethal agent with a clinician’s support, while euthanasia involves the clinician administering it directly.