assisted suicide is a practice in which a person receives assistance in bringing about their death, typically people suffering from a severe physical illness, in which the final step in the process is actively performed by the person concerned. in physician-assisted suicide (also called physician aid-in-dying or pad) a physician knowingly provides a competent but suffering patient, upon the patient's request, with the means by which the patient intends to end his or her own life. assisted suicide is contrasted with "active euthanasia" when the difference between providing the means and actively administering lethal medicine is considered important. for example, swiss law allows assisted suicide while all forms of active euthanasia (like lethal injection) remain prohibited.