In the arena of death and dying, the most important bioethical issue is euthanasia, which is the practice of ending life for reasons of mercy. There are two types of euthanasia, active euthanasia is deliberately ending someone’s life, and passive euthanasia is allowing a person to die by withholding available treatment. (Kail and Cavanaugh, 2008, pp. 555) On the other hand there is physician-assisted suicide, which is a process in which physicians provides dying patients with a fatal dose of medication that the patient self-administers. (Kail and Cavanaugh, 2008, pp. 557) Who actually performs the final act of dying is where the differences between physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia lie. If a doctor performs the fatal dose of medication,
