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Euthanasia is defined by The Oxford English Dictionary as "the action of killing an individual for reasons considered to be merciful" (469). Here, killing is described as the physical action where one individual actively kills another. Euthanasia is tolerated in the medical field under certain circumstances when a patient is suffering greatly and death is inevitable. The word "euthanasia" comes from the Greek eu, "good", and thanatos, "death," literally, "good death"; however, the word "euthanasia" is much more difficult to define. Each person may define euthanasia differently. Who is to decide whether a death is good or not? Is any form of death good? All of these questions can be answered differently by each person.
I do not believe in giving up life the minute a person is informed that he or she has a terminal illness. Life is valuable; you only have one, and it’s worth the fight. It is when the fight is clearly hopeless and the suffering, physical and mental, is unbearable that a final exit is an option.

“A great many cases of self-deliverance or assisted suicide, using drugs and/or a plastic bag, go undetected by doctors, especially now that autopsies are the exception rather than the rule (only 10 percent, and only when there is a mystery about the cause of death). Also, if a doctor asked for a death certificate knows that the patient was in advanced terminal illness then he is not going to be too concerned about the precise cause of death. It hardly matters.” (Humphry 147)

Police, paramedics and coroners put a very low priority of investigation of suicide when evidence comes before them that the person was dying anyway, and that there is a note from the deceased. Detectives and coroners' officers will walk away from the scene once they are satisfied that the person who committed suicide was terminally ill.

“First, should the person go instead into a hospice program and receive not only first-class pain...