Another difficulty comes if we look at voluntary euthanasia as a form of suicide.
The Buddha himself showed tolerance of suicide by monks in two cases. The Japanese Buddhist tradition includes many stories of suicide by monks, and suicide was used as a political weapon by Buddhist monks during the Vietnam war.
But these were monks, and that makes a difference. In Buddhism, the way life ends has a profound impact on the way the new life will begin.
So a person's state of mind at the time of death is important - their thoughts should be selfless and enlightened, free of anger, hate or fear.
This suggests that suicide (and so euthanasia) is only approved for people who have achieved enlightenment and that the rest of us should avoid it.