The Position in Practice: Doctors’ Practices and the Law Applied

Abstract

It is evident that there is, in law, a significant distinction between passive and active euthanasia. The position is that passive euthanasia can in certain circumstances be lawfully performed. Conduct constituting passive euthanasia (that is, the deliberate withholding or withdrawing of life-prolonging medical treatment with the object of hastening the patient's death) is in fact widely practised by the medical profession and accepted as legitimate medical practice. In sharp contrast, with the exception of the Northern Territory of Australia, the law treats active voluntary euthanasia as murder, regardless of the special circumstances, and it is officially condemned by the medical profession. This chapter discusses the position in practice with respect to active voluntary euthanasia and, to a lesser extent, doctor-assisted suicide. It examines patients' requests for active euthanasia or doctor-assisted suicide, prosecution of doctors for active euthanasia or assisted suicide, discrepancies between the criminal law principles and the law in practice, withdrawal of life support, and administration of palliative drugs for the relief of pain and other symptoms.