Euthanasia is categorized as either active or passive. Active euthanasia is illegal in most settings, and some people consider it to be the same as murder. Allowing a patient to refuse life sustaining treatment and removing a feeding tube at the patient's request are examples of passive euthanasia. The patient will die, but the cause will be a natural process. It is called suicide when a person takes his or her own life, and assisted suicide when a person helps another to take his or her own life.
Assisted suicide straddles the line between active and passive euthanasia.
The caregiver generally provides the means of death, but the patient takes the action. A physician assists by writing a prescription for a lethal drug, knowing that the patient plans to kill himself. A nurse assists by leaving the prescribed lethal drug at the patient's bedside. The nurse assists the patient by placing the medication in the patient's hand, helping the patient place the medication in the mouth, and holding a straw to the patient's lips to allow drinking fluid and swallowing the lethal medication. Therefore, it seems clear that patients request, even beg for assistance in dying, not because they desire death, but because the alternative is so repugnant.