The moral and ethical justifiability of euthanasia has been a highly contentious issue. It is a complex concept that has been highly discussed by scholars all around the world for decades. Debates concerning euthanasia have become more frequent during the past two decades. The fact that polls show strong public support has been used in legislative debates to justify that euthanasia should be legalised. However, critics have questioned the validity of these polls. Nonetheless, the general perceptions about life are shifting from a ‘quantity of life’ to a ‘quality of life approach’, and from a paternalist approach to that of the patient’s autonomy. A ‘good death’ is now being connected to choice and control over the time, manner and place of death. All these developments have shaped discussion regarding rights of the terminally ill to refuse or discontinue life sustaining efforts or to even ask for actively ending their life.