Difference Between Suicide and Euthanasia
There are some similarities between suicide and euthanasia, which is why some confuse these two terms and believe they describe the same thing; however, despite any similarity between these concepts, the truth is that they describe different acts. Difference Between Suicide and Euthanasia
If you also have doubts about it or want to know a little more about the difference between euthanasia and suicide, keep reading, because we will explain it to you below.
SUICIDE Difference Between Suicide and Euthanasia
Suicide can be defined as the act of intentionally and voluntarily taking one’s own life. There are several factors that can lead to suicide, but generally those who commit it do so due to one of the following: very high stress levels, financial problems, relationship or relationship problems, unhappiness, death of a loved one, depression , bipolar disorder , schizophrenia, alcohol or drug abuse, among others.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that suicide ranks 13th as a cause of death worldwide. More than a million people commit suicide each year and about 10 to 20 million attempt it without success. Among adolescents and adults under 35 years of age it is one of the main causes of death and, in the case of men, the chances of committing suicide are 4 or 5 times greater than in the case of women.
EUTHANASIA
On the other hand, euthanasia is the act of taking one’s life or allowing another to take it away with the aim of ending suffering or pain that is usually caused by some disease.
Euthanasia can be categorized in different ways: voluntary, non-voluntary and involuntary; But all these categories can be summarized into two groups: active euthanasia and passive euthanasia. The first refers to “assisted suicide” and occurs when someone helps a patient who is suffering too much to end his life. In another order, passive voluntary euthanasia occurs when someone who depends on medical devices to live asks to have them removed, even knowing that in those cases death is almost 100% certain. In the case of passive euthanasia, this is the one that occurs when the sick person refuses to undergo a treatment that represents the only way to extend their life a little more and,
Non-voluntary euthanasia (sometimes called “merciful death”) occurs when the explicit consent of the affected person is not counted on, either because the person is in a vegetative state or any other cause. In these cases, it is the family, legal representative or the couple who makes the decision to stop giving all kinds of support so that the person remains alive (passive euthanasia) or to use a lethal injection to definitively end the life in question ( active euthanasia).
Finally, involuntary euthanasia occurs when it is carried out on a person who is capable of consenting to it but does not. In this case, said person does not choose to die because usually at no time is he asked about it to give his consent, so it is frequent that cases of involuntary euthanasia are considered as homicides.