Euthanasia is “the painless killing of a patient suffering from an incurable and painful disease or in an irreversible coma.” Please note, euthanasia is different to assisted suicide: assisted suicide is where a physician makes the lethal injection/drug available to the patient without actually administering it, while euthanasia is where the physician takes the active role to administer the lethal dose.
There are two types of euthanasia: voluntary (where the patient makes the conscious decision for euthanasia) and non-voluntary (where the patient is incapable of making a decision eg. when in a coma, so the decision is made for them). Within these, there are two further subtypes for each: active and passive. Active euthanasia involves physically giving a lethal dose to a patient, while passive euthanasia involves removing life sustaining support to allow a patient to die.
Under UK law, both euthanasia and assisted suicide are illegal. However, passive euthanasia is considered part of palliative care and is therefore not technically considered as euthanasia in the eyes of the law. This is because, in certain scenarios where there is no hope of survival, the patient may be merely using resources which may be used successfully on other patients, or it may be causing them more pain to be alive than to die. There are various situations which can be explored and are therefore very testable in interviews.
There are multiple questions surrounding euthanasia which could come up in the interview. However, they are all very similar, and revolve around a question of medical ethics. The scenarios for each interview question may change, but below are listed a few questions which may come up:
Although this topic is often brought up by the interviewer to test your grasp of medical ethics, you can also tie it in with other questions that may arise. This is done by directing the conversation to the topics that you are most confident with and is a good method to increase your chances of success in medical school interviews. This is a definite skill which can be learnt through practice and, whilst it cannot be used in every interview, it can be extremely effective when used well. One example of where euthanasia could be mentioned is in questions relating to limited health resources (eg. by legalising euthanasia, this would potentially reduce the demand on said resources).
In summary euthanasia represents a controversial but important topic that is commonly addressed in medical school interviews. Ensure that you have a good understanding of the differences between the different types of euthanasia, as well as the difference between euthanasia and assisted suicide.
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