Euthanasia is a highly debated issue in the United States on both moral and legal grounds. To this date, euthanasia is illegal almost everywhere and viewed by many as being straight out murder, while others are 100% for it. Cecil McIver, who practiced medicine for more than fifty years, wrote an essay, "Assisted Dying as a Moral and Ethical Choice: A Physician's View," which was printed in a publication by the Hemlock Society, believes that physician intervention to end a life is justifiable. On the other end of the spectrum is Dr. Scott Peck, a trained psychiatrist, that now mainly lectures and writes, wrote an essay that Newsweek printed titled, "Living Is the Mystery," where he argues that physician assisted euthanasia should remain illegal. Although, both authors have good arguments for their point of view on the issue, they lack many things as well. When one decides on euthanasia, murder and/or suicide is a harsh word to use as it is far from the truth, it deals more with mercy, dignity and a dying person's last right.
             There are different types of euthanasia such as self-euthanasia, assisted euthanasia, active and passive euthanasia just to name some. An important thing that first needs to be established is the definition of euthanasia. Euthanasia is broken down and defined in the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary as follows: [eu- meaning good + thanatos meaning death]: 1) a quiet and easy death, 2) the means of procuring this, and 3) the action of inducing a quiet and easy death. However, according to the American Medical Association euthanasia is the administration of a lethal agent, by another person to a patient, solely for the intentions of relieving the patient's intolerable and incurable suffering. McIver defines euthanasia as receiving help from a doctor to end suffering when a patient is hopelessly ill, has no hope of ever recovering despite the best medical care, is full...