The term "euthanasia," from the Greek eu thanatos meaning "well," "good," or "easy" dying/death, has today become more commonly equated with one form of dying, namely, "mercy killing," considered by the Catholic Church to be direct or active euthanasia. Official Church teaching describes direct/active euthanasia as "an act or omission which, of itself or by intention, causes death in order to eliminate suffering" and judges that such an act "constitutes a murder gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person and to the respect due to the Living God, His Creator." (Catechism of the Catholic Church [CCC], #2277) The adjectives direct and active have ethical significance. They are used to distinguish those actions that voluntarily induce death from those indirect or passive actions of a more palliative nature (e.g., morphine for pain management) that may unintentionally shorten life, or decisions to forego further interventions (omissions) judged to be medically futile in recognition and acceptance of the inevitability and imminence of death. In Catholic moral teaching, indirect and passive euthanasia are considered to be ethical while direct and active euthanasia are unethical.

History. Direct euthanasia has historically deep roots in human society. It was a common practice in ancient Greece, and later in Rome, as evidenced by the suicidal act of Zeno (c. 263 B. C.), the founder of the Stoic school of philosophy, who took poison rather than endure an agonizing foot injury. In contrast, physicians in the Hippocratic School of medical ethics opposed euthanasia (and abortion), pledging "I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody if asked for it, nor will make a suggestion to this effect." The later widespread influence of Christianity in Europe reduced the practice of euthanasia, teaching that human life is a gift entrusted to us by God and that direct killing of the innocent violates the commandment "Thou shalt not kill." Nineteenth-century developments in anesthesiology reopened discussions of the "good death" with advocacy, for example, of the use of chloroform to end life in cases of hopeless and painful illness.

Pro-euthanasia supporters in the United States began to actively campaign in some states for the legalization of euthanasia. While prominent medical societies opposed euthanasia on the grounds that it was unlawful, ethical arguments were less prominently employed outside the religious communities. The outbreak of World War II and the discovery of the Nazi death camps tended to quiet the voices of advocacy for about a decade.

In the United States legal and ethical discussions about euthanasia and "the right to die" became more prominent in the face of the 1975 medical/legal case of Karen Ann Quinlan who went into a coma after allegedly mixing tranquilizers with alcohol, surviving biologically for nine years in a "persistent vegetative state" even after New Jersey Supreme Court approval to remove her from a...