essay is to explore the concept of euthanasia and its ramifications with particular respect to the nursing profession.
             In the United Kingdom, as in most other countries, euthanasia is illegal. While the taking of one's own life is legal under the Suicide Act (1961), section 2 of the same act views the assisting of an individual to commit suicide as an offence of murder or manslaughter, and is punishable by up to 14 years imprisonment. However, it is noted by Katz & Sidell (1994) that professional people are less likely to be convicted than lay persons, and until the conviction of Dr. Cox (R v Cox [1992] 12 BMLR 38), no British
             doctor had ever been found guilty. The law would seem to be at variance with public opinion in the UK , where surveys consistently show about 75% of the populace in favour of euthanasia (Katz & Sidell 1994). In contrast with the United Kingdom, a more liberal legal view of euthanasia is taken, in practice, in the Netherlands where, note Katz and Sidell (1994), a doctor who 'assists' death at the specific request of the patient will not be punished if certain criteria are fulfilled (see box below), and although it remains illegal, has been decriminalised so long as the criteria are met.
             Although the case of R v Cox [1992] resulted in a guilty verdict, it is interesting to note that Cox was neither imprisoned nor struck off the medical register. This could be interpreted as approaching the Dutch position, but without official recognition. The UK law regarding euthanasia is not totally clear, as while Active Euthanasia, where the intention is to end a persons life, is strictly illegal, a far more permissive view is taken of Passive Euthanasia, whereby death occurs as a "side effect" of treatment or non treatment of the patient. This is illustrated in the case of Bland V Airedale NHS Trust [1993] where it was proposed to discontinue feeding Tony Bland, a victim of the 1989 Hillsborough tragedy, and allowing him...