ABSTRACT
The distinction between charity and justice will turn out to be of the first importance when voluntary and non-voluntary euthanasia are distinguished later on. This chapter considers the morality of euthanasia both voluntary and nonvoluntary, and active and passive. However, all the other combinations, nonvoluntary passive euthanasia, voluntary active euthanasia, and voluntary passive euthanasia are sometimes compatible with both justice and charity. For "euthanasia" means much more than a quiet and easy death, or the means of procuring it, or the action of inducing it. An act of euthanasia, whether literally act or rather omission, is attributed to an agent who opts for the death of another because in his case life seems to be an evil rather than a good. Death from a bullet would have been bliss compared with what many millions had to endure while dying of hunger.
