WHY DOES REMOVING MACHINES COUNT AS PASSIVE EUTHANASIA

The distinction between ''passive'' and ''active'' euthanasia, though problematic and highly criticized, retains a certain intuitive appeal. When a patient is allowed to die, nature appears simply to be taking its course. Yet when a patient is killed by, say, a lethal injection, humans appear to be causing his or her death. Guilt seems to follow na turally from the latter act while not from the former. Yet this view o nly holds up if age-old and vague ideas about ''nature'' and ''artific e'' go unscrutinized. Once examined more closely the functional releva nce of particular machines to particular bodies becomes evident. And t he innocence and guilt less clear.