Euthanasia

Euthanasia is the painless killing of a patient who is suffering usually from a disease, there are two types of euthanasia that are often debated on, active and passive. Active euthanasia involves actually killing a patient, for example this can be done by lethal injection. Passive euthanasia means letting the patient die by not trying to cure the disease or whatever is bringing the patient pain. A patient who is dying of cancer would stop chemotherapy and stop taking the medication required that keeps them alive until they eventually pass away. Often it is argued that active euthanasia is worse than passive euthanasia because active euthanasia means that someone is actually doing the killing. James Rachel however, in “Active and Passive Euthanasia,”  argues that this is not true and that both forms of euthanasia are equal and both are morally the same. Winston Nesbitt takes Rachel’s article and argues against it stating that active euthanasia and the act of actually killing a person if far worse than passive euthanasia.