Active euthanasia - In active euthanasia, a person directly and deliberately causes the patient's death.
Assisted Suicide - When the person who wants to die needs help to kill themselves, asks for it and receives it.
Autonomy - A concept to describe the capacity of an individual to make independent choices.
Competence - A competent patient is one who understands his or her medical condition, what the likely future course of the disease is and the risks and benefits associated with the treatment of the condition; and who can communicate their wishes.
Dignity - The value that a human being has simply by existing, not because of any property or action of an individual.
Euthanasia - translated literally as “good death” and refers to the act of painlessly but deliberately causing the death of another who is suffering from an incurable, painful disease, or condition.
Futile treatment - refers to the medical care of patients in which the care will have little or no effect on the patient’s outcome or prognosis.
Indirect euthanasia - providing treatment (usually to reduce pain) that has the foreseeable side effect of causing the patient to die sooner.
Involuntary euthanasia - when the person who dies wants to live but is killed anyway. It is usually the same thing as murder.
Terminal illness - terminal illness is a generally defined as a disease that cannot be cured or treated, and that can reasonably be assumed to result in the death of the patient within a short period of time.
Palliative care - generally defined as an approach to care that improves the quality of life of patients with a life-threatening illness. Palliative care includes acts to prevent and relieve suffering.
Voluntary euthanasia – A type of euthanasia where the action is carried out at the request of the person who dies.
