n life in the event of terminal illness, and give legal immunity to physicians and institutions honoring such a refusal" (Ogg, 1989, p. 66). An important aspect of these laws is the "living will." A living will is a document which is signed by the terminally ill patient. It instructs doctors to utilize passive euthanasia if the patient's condition becomes hopeless. All of the state laws regarding passive euthanasia require the existence of a living will before the act can be carried out (p. 66). Although passive euthanasia is legal in certain circumstances, active euthanasia is completely illegal throughout the United States. Thus, "all 50 states have either a criminal or common law sanction against assisted suicide" (Belkin, 1989, p. A25).
It is ironic that passive euthanasia is sometimes accepted but active euthanasia is not. There are many cases in which active euthanasia would actually be more humane than passive euthanasia. James Rachels, a philosophy professor at the University of Alabama, has argued that there is essentially no difference between the active and passive forms of euthanasia. According to Rachels, the decision to allow a patient to die slowly is pretty much the same as the decision to terminate the patient's life quickly. Passive euthanasia is accepted by many me
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