Euthanasia & End-of-Life Glossary
Plain definitions of 49 terms used in euthanasia, assisted dying, palliative care and medical ethics.
A
- Active Euthanasia
- Ending a person's life by a direct action, such as giving a lethal drug. Unlike passive euthanasia, it involves an active step rather than withholding treatment.
- Advance Directive
- A legal document that sets out a person's wishes about medical treatment if they become unable to decide or communicate. Common forms include living wills and healthcare proxies.
- Assisted Suicide
- When one person provides the means (usually a lethal prescription) for another person to end their own life, and that person carries out the final act. In euthanasia, by contrast, a third party performs the act.
- Autonomy
- In medical ethics, the principle that competent people have the right to make informed decisions about their own bodies and medical care. It is a central argument in right-to-die debates.
B
- Beneficence
- One of the four principles of biomedical ethics. It requires healthcare providers to act in the patient's best interest. It is used both for and against euthanasia, depending on how 'best interest' is understood.
- Bioethics
- The study of ethical, social and philosophical questions raised by advances in biology and medicine. It frames many debates on euthanasia, informed consent and end-of-life care.
C
- Capacity
- A patient's ability to understand information about their condition and the results of their decisions, and to communicate a choice. Patients generally need capacity to consent to or refuse treatment.
- Clinical Ethics Committee
- A committee of different professionals within a healthcare institution that advises on ethically difficult cases. These include end-of-life decisions, withdrawal of treatment and requests for euthanasia.
- Comfort Care
- Medical care that aims only to relieve pain and discomfort, not to cure disease or extend life. It is a core part of hospice and palliative medicine.
- Compassion & Choices
- A US non-profit that supports end-of-life options, including medical aid in dying. It lobbies for death-with-dignity laws and provides resources to patients and families.
- Crisis Line
- A free, private phone, text or chat service where trained people listen and help someone who is struggling or thinking about suicide. Examples include 988 in the United States and Canada, Samaritans (116 123) in the UK and Ireland, and Lifeline (13 11 14) in Australia. Find A Helpline (findahelpline.com) lists free lines in most other countries. See our help page for lines in your country.
D
- Death with Dignity
- A phrase for laws and practices that let terminally ill people request and receive a prescription for medication to end their lives. Oregon's Death with Dignity Act (1997) was the first such law in the United States.
- Dignitas
- A Swiss assisted-dying organisation that has been the subject of legal and ethical debate.
- DNR (Do Not Resuscitate)
- A medical order telling healthcare providers not to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) if the patient's breathing or heartbeat stops. A DNR is legally binding and must be signed by a physician.
- Doctrine of Double Effect
- An ethical principle from Catholic moral theology. It allows an action with a harmful side effect (such as hastening death through pain medication) if the main intention is good (relieving suffering) and the harm is not the means to that good.
E
- End-of-Life Care
- Support and medical care given in the time around death. It includes palliative care, hospice, symptom management, psychological support, and help with legal and spiritual matters.
- Euthanasia
- Deliberately ending a person's life to relieve suffering, usually at that person's request. The term comes from the Greek for 'good death'. It covers active and passive forms, and voluntary, non-voluntary and involuntary categories.
- Exit International
- An Australian right-to-die organisation founded by Dr Philip Nitschke. Its activities have been strongly criticised by medical and suicide-prevention bodies.
F
- Five Wishes
- A widely used US advance directive that covers five areas: who makes healthcare decisions, what medical treatment is wanted, comfort preferences, how the person wants to be treated, and what they want loved ones to know.
H
- Healthcare Proxy
- A legal document that names another person (the proxy or agent) to make medical decisions for a patient who cannot make them. Also called a durable power of attorney for healthcare.
- Hippocratic Oath
- An ancient Greek ethical code traditionally linked to Hippocrates. Modern medicine reads it as stressing beneficence, non-maleficence and patient welfare. Critics of euthanasia often cite its pledge not to give a deadly drug to anyone who asks. The phrase 'first do no harm' is often linked to it but is not in the Oath.
- Hospice
- Care for people near the end of life, usually with a prognosis of six months or less. Hospice puts comfort and quality of life ahead of curative treatment, and supports patients and their families.
I
- Informed Consent
- A patient's voluntary agreement to a treatment after receiving and understanding all relevant information, including risks, benefits and alternatives. It is required for any end-of-life intervention.
- Involuntary Euthanasia
- Euthanasia carried out without the patient's consent and against their known wishes. It is considered morally wrong and is illegal in all jurisdictions. Most legal systems treat it as murder.
- Irremediability
- A criterion in some MAID laws: the patient's condition cannot be relieved by any treatment the patient finds acceptable. It means euthanasia is only available when suffering cannot be relieved in other ways.
L
- Lethal Injection
- A term mainly associated with capital punishment. In medical contexts, clinicians and researchers usually say 'clinician-administered euthanasia' or 'MAID' instead.
- Living Will
- A type of advance directive that records a person's wishes about life-sustaining treatment if they become unable to communicate. Unlike a healthcare proxy, it does not name another person to make decisions.
M
- MAID
- The acronym means different things in two countries. In the US, Medical Aid in Dying: a physician prescribes medication that a terminally ill, mentally competent adult may take themselves, at their explicit and voluntary request; it is legal in a number of US states. In Canada, Medical Assistance in Dying is the legal term, and it covers both a clinician giving the medication and the person taking it themselves.
- Mercy Killing
- An informal term for euthanasia that stresses the motive of ending someone's suffering. It is often used when a family member or caregiver acts without legal sanction.
N
- Non-Maleficence
- One of the four principles of biomedical ethics, meaning 'do no harm.' It requires healthcare providers to avoid causing unnecessary injury or suffering. It is often cited in arguments against active euthanasia.
- Non-Voluntary Euthanasia
- Euthanasia of a person who cannot give consent, such as a newborn, a person in a coma or a person with severe dementia. Unlike involuntary euthanasia, the person has not expressed a wish against it.
P
- Palliative Care
- Specialised medical care that relieves the symptoms, pain and stress of serious illness. It can be given alongside curative treatment at any stage of illness, not only at the end of life.
- Palliative Sedation
- Using sedative medication to reduce consciousness in a terminally ill patient, to relieve suffering that cannot be relieved in other ways. When the sedation is continuous and deep, it is sometimes called terminal sedation.
- Passive Euthanasia
- Hastening death by withdrawing or withholding life-sustaining treatment, such as a ventilator, feeding tube or medication. It is widely accepted in medicine. In most jurisdictions it is legally and ethically distinct from active euthanasia.
- Patient Autonomy
- The right of competent patients to make decisions about their own medical care, including the right to refuse or stop treatment. It is one of the main ethical arguments for permitting assisted dying.
- Physician-Assisted Death
- A broad term covering both physician-assisted suicide (the physician prescribes and the patient self-administers) and voluntary active euthanasia (the physician administers the drug). Many clinicians prefer it as a neutral term.
- Physician-Assisted Suicide
- A physician gives a competent, terminally ill patient a prescription for medication to end their life, which the patient self-administers. Advocates contest the term 'assisted suicide' and prefer 'medical aid in dying.'
- POLST (Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment)
- A medical order that turns an advance directive or a patient's wishes into instructions that can be acted on right away. Unlike a living will, a POLST must be followed by emergency responders and healthcare providers.
Q
- Quality of Life
- A personal judgement of how physical health, mental state, relationships and environment affect a person's well-being. It is central to end-of-life decisions and is highly individual.
R
- Right to Die
- The belief that people have a right to choose the time and manner of their own death, especially when facing terminal illness or unbearable suffering. It underpins arguments for legal euthanasia and assisted dying.
S
- Sanctity of Life
- The principle, often rooted in religious or philosophical traditions, that human life has intrinsic value and must not be deliberately ended by another person. It is one of the main arguments against euthanasia and assisted dying.
- Slippery Slope
- An argument against legalising euthanasia: allowing it for a narrow group of cases will lead to wider or less justified use over time. Critics of this argument point to evidence from places with long-standing MAID laws.
T
- Terminal Illness
- A disease or condition that cannot be cured and is expected to cause death within a predictable time. For hospice and for US medical aid in dying, this is usually six months or less. Canada's MAID does not require a terminal illness.
- Terminal Sedation
- Giving continuous deep sedation to a terminally ill patient who is close to death, so they stay unconscious until natural death. See also: Palliative Sedation.
U
- Unbearable Suffering
- A criterion in many MAID and euthanasia laws: the patient's suffering, physical or psychological, is so severe that they find it intolerable. The patient judges what is 'unbearable', often with their physicians.
V
- Ventilator
- A machine that helps or takes over a patient's breathing. Withdrawing a ventilator from a patient who cannot breathe alone is a common example of passive euthanasia. With proper consent, it is legal in most countries.
- Voluntary Euthanasia
- Euthanasia carried out at the patient's explicit, informed and voluntary request. It is the form most debated in law and ethics, and is distinct from non-voluntary and involuntary euthanasia.
- VSED (Voluntary Stopping of Eating and Drinking)
- A term from palliative care ethics for a seriously ill person with full decision-making capacity who decides to stop eating and drinking near the end of life. It is discussed in bioethics as a question of patient autonomy, and hospice or palliative care teams are usually involved.
W
- Withholding Treatment
- Deciding not to start a treatment, such as CPR, dialysis or mechanical ventilation, for a patient unlikely to benefit. Some frameworks treat it as legally and ethically distinct from withdrawing treatment, but many bioethicists see them as equivalent.