Definition
The word euthanasia was conceived from the Greek words “eu,” meaning “good,” and “thanatos,” meaning “death” to refer to an easy and painless death. In modern society, euthanasia is understood as an employment or omission of procedures with the aim of accelerating or bringing about death in patients with incurable illnesses in order to release them from unbearable suffering. There are two forms of euthanasia: active euthanasia is when death is caused by a direct and deliberate act such as a doctor giving a patient a dose of lethal medication, while passive euthanasia is when the process of natural death is allowed to take place by either withdrawing or withholding life-sustaining treatment; for example, switching off a machine to allow a person to die of their illness. Euthanasia can further be categorized into nonvoluntary and voluntary euthanasia. Nonvoluntary euthanasia...
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Ho, A.H.Y., Tan-Ho, G. (2021). Euthanasia and Senicide. In: Gu, D., Dupre, M.E. (eds) Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22009-9_1008
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