219. Contrary to the above, in legal parlance, euthanasia has since come to be recognised as of two distinct types : the first is active euthanasia, where death is caused by the administration of a lethal injection or drugs. Active euthanasia also includes physician-assisted suicide, where the injection or drugs are supplied by the physician, but the act of administration is undertaken by the patient himself. Active euthanasia is not permissible in most countries. The jurisdictions in which it is permissible are Canada, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the States of Colorado, Vermont, Montana, California, Oregon and Washington D.C. in the United States of America. Passive euthanasia occurs when medical practitioners do not provide life-sustaining treatment (i.e. treatment necessary to keep a patient alive) or remove patients from life-sustaining treatment. This could include disconnecting life support machines or feeding tubes or not carrying out life-saving operations or providing life-extending drugs. In such cases, the omission by the medical practitioner is not treated as the cause of death; instead, the patient is understood to have died because of his underlying condition.
