Assisted Suicide Is Not Voluntary Active Euthanasia, but It's Awfully Close

In reply

“…In reply :—We welcome this opportunity to further clarify our position 1 on the issues raised by Watts and Howell 2 . We agree wholeheartedly with both their acknowledgement of the importance of patient autonomy and their claim that autonomy involves a continuum.…”

Active Voluntary Euthanasia or Physician‐Assisted Suicide?

“…Differences and similarities between euthanasia and physician‐assisted suicide can be seen from a moral, judicial, medico‐technical or psychological angle. Some authors think that in a moral sense, euthanasia and physician‐assisted suicide are the same in that they both have the same objective: actively terminating the life of someone who has explicitly requested this to happen 4–7 . However, other authors think that an important moral distinction is the fact that in euthanasia, the physician administers the lethal drugs, whereas in assisted suicide, the patient takes the drugs him or herself 8 .…”

Physician‐Assisted Suicide

“…To the Editor :—Graber and Chassman 1 raise some very well‐taken and enlightening points in their editorial response to our paper 2 on the distinctions between physician‐assisted suicide and voluntary active euthanasia. We note, by implication in the title of their piece, that they concede that physician‐assisted suicide can be cogently distinguished from voluntary active euthanasia.…”