Passive euthanasia is defined as allowing a patient to die by withholding treatment, while active euthanasia is defined as taking measures that directly cause a patient's death. Essentially, the terms active and passive address how close the causal connection is between an action and an individual's death

Those who state that active termination of a patients life can never be justified appeal to many strong arguments in support of their assertion. Firstly, it is thought that if a person seeks to end their life through active euthanasia, then they intrinsically contradict the value of their autonomy; Secondly, active euthanasia violates the fundamental prohibition against killing, except of course in the case of self-defense or defense of others; Thirdly it is thought that there would be a general reduction of respect for human life if official barri

First consider the dilemma of Dr. Brown, who has a limited supply of a drug and 6 patients who will die without it. The dilemma arises because 1 patient needs the entire supply of the drug to survive, while the other 5 need only one-fifth of the amount. Should he let 1 die to save 5? Then consider the dilemma of Dr. Green who has 5 patients who will die unless they undergo organ transplantation, but the organs they require are unavailable. It occurs to her, however, that there is a healthy clinical clerk on the ward with all the organs necessary to supply the 5 patients. Should she kill 1 to save 5?

Rachels observes and acknowledges the belief that actively killing someone is morally worse than passively letting someone die. Nevertheless he propounds that they do not differ since both have the same outcome: the death of the patient on humanitarian grounds. It is his opinion that the difference between the two is accentuated because we frequently hear of terrible cases of active killings, but not of passive killings.

Rights can be divided into 2 types, negative and positive. Negative rights are our rights not to be interfered with and not to be harmed, for instance, the right not to have our property taken away. Positive rights are our rights to goods and services, such as our right to food and medical care. Corresponding with a person's negative and positive rights are other people's negative and positive duties: we have a negative duty not to harm others and a positive duty to feed the hungry.

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1930
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)