The word euthanasia which means “good death” is derived from the Greek word eù signifying “good” and thanatos signifying “death”. From the beginning, the word associated dying with the art to die and the quality of the last instant of life. The second and contemporary meaning is introduced at the end of the 19th century. From then on, the word euthanasia has been commonly used in the sense of ending a patient’s life by a doctor in order to relieve him of the suffering. In the process, the intentional intervention to shorten the life of someone who has suffered a serious and incurable sickness has given rise to an ethical deliberation and come to acquire a criminal connotation. Those who support euthanasia contend that patients have the right to end life, rather than to continue it at all costs.
It is worth noting that euthanasia is always used with various adjectives which qualify different types of euthanasia: active, passive, voluntary and involuntary euthanasia.