Is there a difference between helping someone die and letting someone die? This is the question central to the debate of whether there is a moral difference between active and passive euthanasia. Active euthanasia is described as a physician helping a patient die that is in deep suffering, whereas passive euthanasia may be defined as a physician withholding treatment that would keep a dying patient alive for some amount of time. One can use the guiding principles in Immanuel Kant’s theory, referred to as Kantian deontology, and John Stuart Mill’s, utilitarianism, and how they would address ethical issues that arise when considering active euthanasia to better understand the moral debate surrounding the euthanasia issue. John Stuart Mill’s
