ABSTRACT
Euthanasia refers to the practice of ending another person’s life with the intention of ending their suffering. It is sometimes described as the practice of bringing about a ‘good’ or ‘quiet’ death. It can be classified as involuntary (against the wishes of a competent person); voluntary (with the wishes of a competent person); and nonvoluntary (where the individual is incompetent). These categories may be sub-divided as active (a positive act that causes the death) or passive (an omission or failure to act). Euthanasia should be distinguished from physician assisted suicide, in which a mentally competent person is given help to enable him to commit suicide. The meanings of these terms were all considered by the House of Lords Select Committee on Medical Ethics and may be found in their Report (HL Paper 21-1, 1993-94). A final distinction worth bearing in mind when reading the case law is between an act and an omission. Although it may be open to criticism from a moral perspective, the law only holds a person responsible for an omission where there was a prior duty to act: the mother of a child may be criminally liable if she fails to feed her baby, but a stranger will not be even if it would be of minimal inconvenience.
