- 1安樂死
Euthanasia is when someone who is very ill, and close to death, is killed on purpose so they will not keep suffering. In the strict sense, a doctor or another person does the last act that ends the life. Countries argue about whether this should be legal, and under what rules: the dying person must usually ask for it, doctors must agree the illness cannot be , and there are checks so nobody is pushed. Some places allow it; many, including Taiwan, do not treat it as a normal medical choice. People also stretch the word in debate. Turning off a machine that is only keeping the body going, or giving strong pain medicine that may also life, sit in a grey area some speakers still call euthanasia and others carefully do not. It is a formal, heavy word — hospital, law, and newspaper language, not casual chat. It is not the same as suicide (the person ending their own life) and not the same as murder (killing out of hate or gain), though the law in each country draws those lines differently. When English speakers talk about a very sick pet, they more often use the verb than this noun.
From the word’s history
From Greek εὐθανασία: eu- 'good' + thanatos 'death'.
希臘文 εὐθανασία：εὐ-「好」＋θάνατος「死」，好死、安樂死。
組成From Ancient Greek euthanasía: eu- “good” + thánatos “death” — first used in English in 1606. The pieces still match the idea: a death meant to be gentle.
原始詞典資料3 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
euthanasianoun/juː.θəˈneɪ.zi.ə/
- 1
The practice of intentionally killing a human being or animal in a humane way, especially in order to end suffering.
- Euthanasia is the most difficult part of a veterinarian's job.
- In recent years, the sisters spoke openly about their desire for euthanasia in the event that one of them became gravely ill.
- 2
The practice of killing a human being who is considered a liability to society, especially a disabled person.
- Nevertheless, as Henry Friedlander pointed out years ago, it was not Jews but mentally and physically disabled people who became targets of the first large-scale, systematic killings in Nazi Germany, under the euphemistically labelled “Euthanasia Program.”
- 3
obsoleteAn easy death, or the means to bring about such a death.
- It would in time, it is to be hoped, effect a quiet euthanasia of the heresies of bigotry and fanaticism which have so long triumphed over human reason, and so generally and deeply afflicted mankind; but this work is to be begun by winnowing the grain from the chaff of the historians of his life.
- Had they understood their place, and what to do in it, this French Revolution, which went forth explosively in years and in months, might have spread itself over generations; and not a torture-death but a quiet euthanasia have been provided for many things.
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。