ABSTRACT
However, in common with much of the academic literature, we here employ the term more widely, also to encompass situations in which a doctor, intending his patient’s death, omits to provide life-prolonging treatment: we thus distinguish between ‘active’ euthansia and ‘passive’ euthanasia (the latter involving such an omission). Whilst this is ultimately a matter of semantics, the reader should be alert, especially when reading judgments, as to whether the narrower or wider usage has been adopted in a particular instance. In addition to the active/passive distinction, the practice of euthanasia may also be characterised as ‘voluntary’ or ‘non-voluntary’ depending on whether the patient was mentally capable to request it or not.
