euthanasia
n.
painless killing of a person or animal who is terminally ill, mercy killing
Euthanasia
Euthanasia is the practice of ending the
life of a human or animal who is incurably
ill in a
painless or minimally painful way, for the purpose of limiting
suffering. Laws around the world vary greatly with regard to euthanasia, and are constantly subject to change as cultural values shift and better
palliative care, or treatments become available. It is legal in some nations, while in others it may be
criminalized.
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euthanasia
Noun
1. the act of killing someone painlessly (especially someone suffering from an incurable illness)
(synonym) mercy killing
(hypernym) killing, kill, putting to death
Euthanasia
(n.)
An easy death; a mode of dying to be desired.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), edited by Noah Porter.
About
Euthanasia
Euthanasia [from Greek eu well +thanatos death] Easy death, a painless death; used for the practice of mercifully killing people who would otherwise suffer a painful death. To decide if a person should or should not be kept alive by artificial means or a life ended by artificial means requires almost superhuman discernment. An individual is not his body nor even his mind, but fundamentally a spiritual being. Physical suffering from bodily ills, however unpleasant, provides an opportunity to meet and dispose of certain karmic causes, and thereby learn and grow. Aside from the difficulty of preventing abuses in legalized euthanasia, the ethical and spiritual questions surrounding artificial prolongation and shortening of life remain extremely complex. The Stoics held that life is a gift of the gods and therefore no person has the right to reject that gift -- for oneself or another -- until the gods themselves call it back.
Also used for the power possessed by adepts to quit or drop their physical body painlessly, in order to work as nirmanakayas, which is the meaning of the stories in the Bible which speak of men being taken to heaven without dying.