When a physician administers medication to relieve severe pain in a terminally ill patient,and the medication also hastens the patient's death,the situation is called

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The situation described is a double effect, which occurs when a medical action has both a good intended effect (relieving pain) and an unintended bad effect (hastening death). In this case, the physician's primary intention was to relieve pain, not to hasten death, but the death was a foreseen consequence of the action. It is different from physician-assisted suicide and active euthanasia because the physician did not intend to cause death, and from passive euthanasia because an active intervention (administration of medication) was involved.

When a Physician Administers Medication to Relieve Severe Pain in a Terminally