When we hear the phrase voluntary euthanasia people generally think of one of two things: the active termination of life at the patient's request as it occurs in the Netherlands (or similar proposals in other countries); or the Nazi extermination program of murder. Many people have beliefs about whether euthanasia is right or wrong, often without being able to define it clearly. Some people take an extreme view, while many fall somewhere between the two camps. Dictionary definitions avail us little, as there will always be large groups of people that claim it means something else. The apparent derivation a gentle and easy death (from the Greek, eu - thanatos) hardly describes what we mean. Even extending the definition to include bringing about of this, especially in the case of incurable and painful disease (Oxford English Dictionary) hardly covers it - hospices often succeed in bringing about a peaceful death, but they don't perform euthanasia! In the Netherlands, the only country where euthanasia is openly practised, euthanasia is defined as "the intentional termination of life by another at the explicit request of the person who dies" (Netherlands State Commission on Euthanasia). The argument then often centres on the voluntariness of the request. How can one be sure that it is voluntary? Supporters of the voluntary euthanasia movement generally believe that it would be possible to devise sufficient safeguards to ensure that the request was voluntary and that people could never feel pressured. The Dutch are critical of their own system and are continually refining and testing it - though generally they feel that it respects human rights and is part of good medicine. They get rid of the word voluntary since the explicit request is part of their definition of euthanasia. An explicit request is objectively observable, whereas voluntariness depends somewhat on interpretation. (Some opponents of euthanasia suggest that the true wi...
