What is Euthanasia?
In the Belgian euthanasia act, "euthanasia is defined as intentionally terminating life by someone other than the person concerned, at the latter's request."
There are several different subcategories of euthanasia:
- Voluntary: euthanising a person with their consent
- Involuntary: euthanising a person without their consent (this form is most commonly applied if a patient is in a coma and his/her wishes are unknown)
- Active: actively killing a patient, such as by lethal injection
- Passive: allowing a patient to die by withholding or removing life support, including ventilator or feeding tube
- Self-administered: the patient is the one who administers the means of death
- Other-administered: the means of death is administered by someone other than the patient being euthanised
- Assisted: the patient administers the means of death with assistance from someone else, commonly a physician
There are several different subcategories of euthanasia:
- Voluntary: euthanising a person with their consent
- Involuntary: euthanising a person without their consent (this form is most commonly applied if a patient is in a coma and his/her wishes are unknown)
- Active: actively killing a patient, such as by lethal injection
- Passive: allowing a patient to die by withholding or removing life support, including ventilator or feeding tube
- Self-administered: the patient is the one who administers the means of death
- Other-administered: the means of death is administered by someone other than the patient being euthanised
- Assisted: the patient administers the means of death with assistance from someone else, commonly a physician