passive and active (Beauchamp and Davidson, 1979, p. 304). A passive euthanasia is one in which the suffering individual is allowed to die by "natural" means; that is, the participants (patient, doctors, family, friends, society) agree not to use medical means to prolong the individual's life. An example would be the famed Karen Ann Quinlan case, where the comatose patient, after years on artificial life support systems, was disconnected from those systems and allowed to die as her body functions naturally ceased (Humphrey, Let me die before I wake, 1986, pp. 86-88). Active euthanasia, as can be readily ascertained, is when those same participants use direct action to hasten the end; a lethal injection of morphine into the I.V. tube of a terminal burn victim would be one example. The "suicide machine" of Dr. Jack Kevorkian is another example, a notorious and controversial playing out of the debate over active euthanasia in the media and courtrooms (Humphrey, Final exit, 1991, pp. 131-141).
The definitions of passive and active euthanasia co-exist alongsi
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