血液流盡Does the fact that the doctor performed an action, rather than an omission, condemn him?
许多医生一直在为解除病人临终前的痛苦而奋斗着。他们认为在病人请求安乐死时，根本无法截然区分被动与主动的安乐死。
Many doctors working on the battlefield of terminal suffering think that only squeamishness demands a firm difference between passive and active euthanasia on request.
他们赞成医生杀死病人的理由是：医生的职责之一就是使病人免遭痛苦，这是医生所做的全部事情，而杀死病人则是做到这一点的惟一办法。
Their argument for killing goes like this: one of a doctor‘s duties is to prevent suffering; sometimes that is all there is left for him to do, and killing is the only way to do it.
这个观点并不新颖。当希波克拉底为医生制定信条的时候，曾明确禁止安乐死，而多数其他希腊医生和思想家都不赞成这一禁令。
There is nothing new in this view. When Hippocrates formulated his oath for doctors, which explicitly rules out active killing, most other Greek doctors and thinkers disagreed with his ban. 前事不忘，后事之师。
Let the past be a guide.
有人认为死亡的时间是上帝安排的，任何人不得缩短他人的生命，然而假如一位病人的人生观使其接受安乐死，那么人们不禁要问：为什么其他人还要用不同的宗教观念去干预其死亡呢？
Some people believe that the time of death is appointed by God and that no man should put the clock back on another. Yet if a patient‘s philosophical views embrace euthanasia, it is not clear why the religious objections of others should intrude on his death.
另一个令人担忧问题是，有关安乐死的法律体系允许医生在规定的情况下按照垂死病人的请求实施安乐死，就可能为杀人首开先例，从而危害社会。
Another worry is that a legal framework for euthanasia, permitting a doctor to comply with a dying man‘s request in a prescribed set of circumstances, might pose dangers for society by setting a precedent for killing.
这个问题取决于社会。
That depends on the society.
尽管有不同意见，荷兰对建立这样的法律体系已经准备就绪。
Holland, arguably, is ready for it.
当年就是荷兰医生英勇无比地顶住了压力，拒绝参与使安乐死声名狼藉的纳粹用人体进行医学实验的暴行，这恐怕不是巧合。
It is probably no coincidence that it was Dutch doctors who most heroically resisted pressure to join in the Nazi medical atrocities that have given euthanasia its worst name.
这些医生对个人自由坚定不移的尊重使他们没有杀害渴望活下去的健康人。今天正是同样的精神又使他们去帮助不愿活下去的垂危病人。
The same tenacious respect for individual liberty that stopped them killing healthy people, who did not want to die, now lets them help dying people who do.
与之相反，西德在未来相当长的时间里都无法使任何形式的安乐死合法化。
West Germany, by contrast, will not be able to legalize any form of euthanasia for a long time to come.
由于历史的阴影反对安乐死的力量异常强大，在那些近年来自由意志的传统未受任何干扰的国家里，为自愿安乐死制定有限的规定并不会使人们产生太多的恐惧。
Opposition is too fierce, because of the shadow of the past. Countries with an uninterrupted recent
