rst distinguish between passive and active euthanasia and their implications. In addition, I will examine the legal issues behind the Quinlan case and other similar cases. Finally, I will propose the argument that with proper legislation, physician assisted suicide is often a more favorable alternative to allowing patients to suffer needlessly. O. Ruth Russell defines active or positive euthanasia as "a positive merciful act taken deliberately to end futile suffering or a meaningless existence...where death is induced either by direct action to terminate life or by indirect action such as in giving drugs in amounts that will clearly hasten death" (19). Active euthanasia is illegal in most states. "Passive or negative euthanasia means discontinuing or desisting from the use of "extraordinary" life-sustaining measures or "heroic" efforts to prolong life in hopeless cases when such prolongation seems an unwarranted extension of either suffering or unconsciousness" (Russell, 20). There are several different views associated with active and passive euthanasia. While some doctors and patients may accept passive euthanasia, many reject active euthanasia. Robert G. Twycross strongly disagrees with the practice of euthanasia, especially active euthanasia in "Where There Is Hope, There Is Life: A View From the Hospice." Twycross uses cancer patients as an example and asserts that often patients opt for euthanasia because initially they do not feel the relieves of medication being and "their pain is used as a channel of mental anguish" (162). Therefore, unable to stand the intolerable pain, patients feel that euthanasia is the best way out. However, Twycross argues that "compared with patients and physically fit people, doctors have been noted to express a greater fear of death, more rejection of personnel death and significantly more negative death imagery" (159). Twycross argument adds a whole new dimension to the euthanasia argument. If in f...
