It’s called passive euthanasia, and it’s allowed in several countries in the world, including my country (only active euthanasia, i.e direct action to terminate the patient’s life, is legally regulated in my country crime law, but the passive one is up to hospital and doctor’s code of ethics)
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Bhante Sujato discusses this in the first workshop of the Karma & Rebirth course. Beginning of the last video on this page:
http://wisdomandwonders.org/index.php/early-buddhism-2015/early-buddhism-20151/
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I am not sure this is the case.
I heard in a Dhamma talk that there are stories in EBT of arahants who committed suicide,for example because they had some chronic illness (actually, does anyone knows the references? it would be interesting to look at the texts).
Also, the Buddha himself died by eating pork that he knew would kill him, according to the Mahaparinibbana sutta (he warned others not to eat it). So this was a kind of suicide by self-poisoning.
Also, the aim of the EBT teachings is to attain parinibbana: complete disappearance from samsara. To me this seems Superpower euthanasia (to paraphrase the term superpower mindfulness 
) because you end not just this one life, but the whole cycle of innumerable rebirths.
On cause of death, How the Buddha died
Venerable Dr Mettanando Bhikkhu
and Cause of the Buddha’s Death
I found this less mythic analysis interesting, perhaps others might also.
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Not sure if it’s been discussed in this thread yet but there are a few rare instances of the Buddha allowing monastics to suicide (“take the knife”) only if they had reached Arahant and had a debilitating pain condition or disease.
IMO, if you commit suicide but you can attain Arahantahood when you’re doing it, you are blameless…
if it’s a gamble, then… don’t gamble.
edit add: all advice i might offer would be just an opinion, of course.
I don’t know about that. We have to be extremely careful around this topic. It should be clear that ordinary suicide is definitely considered killing and morally bad in almost all circumstances. This kind of a blameless suicide is extremely rare.
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Yes, it’s a very rare case, e.q. in Channa Sutta, Vakkali Sutta, and Godhika Sutta
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That’s basically how I feel about it.
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You’re not being sarcastic, right? That’s 3 suttas out of how many?
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Afaik 
Sad week for people living in Victoria , Australia!
Having just spent 8 months assisting my best friend with a horrible cancer to die a tortuous death, I think this is a wonderful and freeing thing! We euthanise our pets to minimise suffering, but people are not able to access this same level of compassionate care.
Remember this applies to the entire population Buddhist or not, and is completely voluntary. No-one is forcing anyone to do anything. How can a compassionate person possibly impose their judgement on others in this way?? A glib comment like this, is it useful or beneficial for anyone?
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This is ware exctly the westerners gone wrong!
This is killing and a person who kills pets end up in a woeful state.
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I have exctly the same experience. But the person was happy until the last minute.
Howeve the person was under medication and pain killers.
I agree this is taxing the living people.
But attendig to sick and old age people is all our respinsibility. Not to kill them.
Suffering leads to faith.
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God point about euthanising pets, not wanting them to suffer.
IMO it’s quite reasonable that people with a painful, terminal illness should have the right to choose an early “release” from their suffering.
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If you take a look at the paarajika pali’s rule on killing, in the root story a group of monks develop the unattractiveness meditation to an extreme limit where they get so disgusted of their bodies they ask a fellow monk to kill them. In the process, he ends up killing a large amount of Bhikkhus who are willing to die. But the point is whether they wanted to die or not, the act of killing resulted in the loss of the Bhikkuship of the murderer, he was forever defeated.
In this story, it is clear that those monks were suffering as well, but the act of killing still remains as something very wrong.
May the Tripple Gems Bless You.
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Fair point, and killing is clearly wrong. However this discussion is really about allowing people to end their own lives. The grey area is the ethics of helping somebody to end their life. I guess it comes down to intention in the end. If somebody you love is slowly dying and suffering horribly, then helping them to end that might be a very compassionate act.
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@Martin It is fair to come to a conclusion so, as it sounds pretty ethical. But the thing is even in that above story the Bhikku kills the other Bhikkhus because they asked him to do so, but still he ends up losing his Bhikkhuship. There is another story also in that paarajika stories about a monk advising a butcher to kill someone who was sentenced for a torturous death to be killed without being tortured. Even in that instance, he loses his Bhikkhuship.
We cannot determine where someone is born after the euthanising process, if he is to be born in a worse place we are simply lessening the time he could be in a human world.
Someone ending their own life is one thing, aiding them to do so will end up causing bad karma to both sides. I say these words with extreme sympathy, not to offence or hurt anyone.
May the Triple Gems Bless You.
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