Legal Definitions - dyathanasia

Definition: Dyathanasia refers to the act of allowing death to occur naturally by withholding, terminating, or not offering life-prolonging treatments or intervention. It is also known as passive mercy killing. This is different from euthanasia, which involves actively ending a person's life to relieve their suffering.

Example: If a person is terminally ill and in a lot of pain, they may choose to stop receiving treatment and allow their illness to take its natural course. This is an example of dyathanasia.

Explanation: In this example, the person is not actively seeking to end their life, but rather choosing to let nature take its course. They are not being given any life-prolonging treatments or interventions, and their death is a result of their illness progressing naturally.

Additional Example: If a person is on life support and their family decides to remove the machines keeping them alive, this is also an example of dyathanasia.

Explanation: In this example, the family is choosing to withhold life-prolonging treatments and allow the person to pass away naturally. They are not actively ending the person's life, but rather allowing them to die without any interventions.