"We reserve the right to refuse service"
             Everyday, people see these signs at restaurants and other shops, but soon you might see this sign at the door of your local hospital.
             Now, what's the difference between euthanasia and assisted suicide?
             *One way to distinguish them is to look at the last act – the act without which death would not occur.
             *Using this distinction, if a third party performs the last act that intentionally causes a patient's death, euthanasia has occurred. For example, giving a patient a lethal injection or putting a plastic bag over her head to suffocate her would be considered euthanasia.
             *On the other hand, if the person who dies performs the last act, assisted suicide has taken place. Thus it would be assisted suicide if a person swallows an overdose of drugs that has been provided by a doctor for the purpose of causing death. It would also be assisted suicide if a patient pushes a switch to trigger a fatal injection after the doctor has inserted an intravenous needle into the patient's vein.
             *And suicide is one of the ten most common causes of death in Great Britain
             So, where are euthanasia and assisted suicide legal?
             *Oregon and the Netherlands are the only two jurisdictions in the world where laws specifically permit euthanasia or assisted suicide. Here's how they "lay out" so to say. Oregon permits assisted suicide, but The Netherlands permits both euthanasia and assisted suicide.
             *In 1995 Australia's Northern Territory approved a euthanasia bill. It went into effect in 1996 but was overturned by the Australian Parliament in 1997. Also, in 1997, Colombia's Supreme Court ruled that penalties for mercy killing should be removed. However the ruling does not go into effect until guidelines, still to be drafted, are approved by the Colombian Congress.
             *In 1989, a group of physicians published a report in the New England Journal of Me...