Euthanasia is a word that comes from ancient Greece and refers to the “good death”. In modern societies, euthanasia is defined as taking the life of people suffering from an incurable illness. They usually go through this process in a painless manner to avoid the greater pain caused by the disease. A large number of countries around the world are against euthanasia and any specific type of euthanasia. One of the most important topics of discussion today is whether euthanasia should be legalized or not. This essay will focus on comparing the positive and negative aspects of euthanasia in order to answer the question of whether euthanasia should be legal or not. There are three different types of euthanasia: active, passive and voluntary. Active euthanasia refers to the process of injecting painkillers and sleeping pills to reduce the time a patient suffers by making their death less painful. On the other hand, voluntary euthanasia refers to the case of the conscientious patient, who voluntarily asks the doctor to abandon the treatments. In this case, the patient is aware that he will die soon and it does not matter if he stops the treatments. In my discussion of whether or not euthanasia should be legalized, I will refer only to arguments relating to active, voluntary euthanasia. The legalization of euthanasia has many negative aspects. One of the important negative factors would be the doctor's power to decide the patient's life. As it is written in the book “An Ethical Approach to Natural Law”, legalizing the applications of forms of euthanasia attributes to doctors the role of God (Paterson 28-29). As a result, it becomes the doctor's decision for the patient, for middle of paper...... the most important prize that God gave us, and no matter how long we will live, no matter the conditions in which we will live, we must live them to the end.Works Cited1. “Basic definitions.” Types of euthanasia. November 20, 2001. http://www.pregnantpause.org/euth/types.htm. Internet. December 12, 20102. Paterson, Craig. An ethical approach to natural law. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing, 2008. 28-29. Print.3. “Religion and spirituality”. National Center for Death with Dignity. Np, 2007. http://www.deathwithdignity.org/historyfacts/religion.as. Internet. December 12, 2010.4. O'Reilly, Kevin. “Assisted suicide statute challenged by 2 Connecticut doctors.” »Discovery Institute (2009). Print5. Young, Robert. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2010. N. pag. Stanford University. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/euthanasia-voluntary/. Internet. December 10. 2010.