Mercy Death and Mercy Killing

People tend to confuse Mercy Death with Mercy Killing, mercy death is "a termination of life expressly requested by a dying patient who is competent to do so; distinguished from allowing someone to die in that a direct act is taken to end the patient's life. While mercy killing refers to; "a direct act taken to end someone's life with the motive of being merciful."

Ethical Egoism refers to all persons ought to act from their own self-interest. Respect to "mercy death" the person that would kill the person who doesn't wants to continue with their life should have a benefit out of it en respond to ethical egoism but because the patient, for example, is the one asking to end with his life the person wouldn't be looking exactly to get a benefit out of it. Instead if the situation was "mercy killing" the person who would commit the act of killing would probably get something good out of it as a result like money, properties, etc. of provoking someone's death without their consent but with the excuse that they were just ending with the persons suffer.

Respect to Utilitarianism which promotes the greatest happiness of the greatest number of persons it would depend a lot on the situation in which the person willing to die is, if the family and friends know how he or she is suffering and just wants to let their friend end with their pain and know that would make him/she happy then probably they would agree with the decision and will be happy the person doesn't suffers anymore showing the utilitarianism theory. But if all the people surrounding the person that will die will suffer a lot his/her death, then, utilitarianism wouldn't apply to these circumstance.

Divine command theory holds that an act is either moral or immoral only because God either commands us to do it or prohibits us from doing it, respectively; it also states that God prohibits torture. We are talking about a person who wants to die or is suffering and will eventually die, so in a certain way is torture and the divine command theory says that God prohibits torture so if someone give mercy death to the patient it would be the right thing to do on respect to this theory. But mercy killing wouldn't be totally allowed because the person taking away the other one life may use a method that would make him suffer or be torture even though at the end he/she will stop having pain.

If a person is about to commit a mercy killing they would be violating Kant's Duty Ethics because they are expecting to get something possibly material out of it and have a superficial intention by making this act. For Kant, the morally important thing is not consequences but the way choosers think when they make choices. By the other hand, if there is going to be a mercy death, then it would be all right because is the decision of the person who is going to die and so by consequence, the person that will