USLegalWills.comis dedicated to providing services related to advancedirectives, including Living Wills which allowyou to specify your wishes regarding voluntary passive euthanasia. Beloware some questions and answers related to euthanasia.

Euthanasia is the act of intentionally causing the death of a patient,normally to relieve the patient's pain, suffering, or loss of quality of life.To be considered euthanasia, the act must be performed by a third party. Forexample, giving a patient a lethal injection would be considered euthanasia.

Assisted suicide is the act of intentionally causing the death of a person,where the person themselves performs the last act which causes death to occur.For example, if a person swallows an overdose of drugs that have been providedby a doctor for the purpose of causing death, or if a patient pushes a switch totrigger a fatal injection after the doctor has inserted an intravenous needleinto the patient's vein.

The law is changing very rapidly with respect to euthanasia and assisted dying.Legislation on euthanasia in most countries distinguishes between passive euthanasia(withholding or withdrawing of life-preserving procedures including water and food)and active euthanasia (intentionally killing a person to relieve pain).

In Canada, passive euthanasia has been legal for quite some time, but active euthanasiawas previously prohibited as a form of culpable homicide up until June 6th 2016 witha Supreme Court decision (Carter v Canada). It ruled that adults with grievous andirremediable medical conditions are entitled to physician-assisted suicide.

In the United States, while active euthanasia is illegal throughout the U.S., assisted suicide is legal in Oregon,Washington, Vermont, California (effective from June 2016), one county in New Mexico, and is de facto legal in Montana.

In the United Kingdom, euthanasia and assisted dying are both illegal. Section 2 of the SuicideAct 1961, as originally enacted, provided that it was an offence to "aid, abet, counsel orprocure the suicide of another" and that a person who committed this offence was liable toimprisonment for a term not exceeding fourteen years. That section was amended by the Coronersand Justice Act 2009. Although it is an offence to assist a patient in committing suicide, manydoctors still assist their patients with their wishes by withholding treatment and reducing pain.This, however, is only done when the doctors feel that death is a few days away and afterconsulting patients, relatives or other doctors.

No. Many people think that euthanasia or assisted suicide is needed so thatpatients won't be forced to remain alive by being "hooked up to machines". Butthe law already permits patients or their families to withhold or withdrawunwanted medical treatment even if that increases the likelihood that thepatient will die. Thus, no one needs to be "hooked up to machines" against theirwill.

Furthermore, insisting against a patient's wishes that "everything be done"to keep them alive is not required by law nor by medical ethics. There comes atime when continued attempts to cure are not compassionate, wise, or medicallysound. That is the time when all efforts are normally directed to making thepatient's remaining time as comfortable as possible, including alleviating pain,alleviating symptoms, and perhaps even leaving the hospital so that they mayspend the rest of their days in a more comfortable home environment.

These wishes are normally outlined in a living will, as provided by theMyLivingWill service here atUSLegalWills.com.

Neither suicide nor attempted suicide is criminalized anywhere in the UnitedStates or in many other countries. This is not because of any "right" tosuicide. When penalties against attempted suicide were removed, legal scholarsmade it clear that this was not done for the purpose of permitting suicide.Instead it was intended to prevent suicide. Penalties were removed so peoplecould seek help in dealing with the problems they're facing without risk ofbeing prosecuted if it were discovered that they had attempted suicide.

Most people die in hospitals and often this is after receiving treatmentadministered in an effort to prolong a person's life. Medical staff areduty bound to use everything within the powers of modern medicine to keep apatient alive as long as possible, and within those powers there are regulationsto be followed. Medical staff are obliged to preserve a patient's lifewithout necessarily considering the financial or emotional concerns of thepatient and loved ones.

A Living Will gives you some say in the way you will be treated before youdie, in a situation where death is otherwise inevitable. This can be usedin two ways --- to put a swift end to intolerable suffering, or to endorse theuse of experimental treatment to try and save your life if at all possible.

The most common use of a Living Will is to express your desire for avoluntary passive euthanasia. Simply put, this means that medical staffshould not artificially preserve your life under specific circumstances whichare determined by you. In addition, your Living Will or "health caredirective" can express your views on the healthcare that you wish to receive ifyou were ever in a permanent coma.

The MyLivingWill service here atUSLegalWills.comwill let you create and define a living will to handle theabove circumstances in accordance with your wishes, in the case where you areunable to communicate your wishes yourself.

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Euthanasia - Information & Answers | U.S. Legal Wills