Requests for voluntary euthanasia are extremely rare in situations where the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of terminally ill patients are adequately met. Because symptoms that prompt euthanasia can almost always be managed with currently available therapies, our top priority must be to ensure that high-quality terminal care is readily available. While recognizing the importance of individual patient autonomy, history has clearly demonstrated that legalized euthanasia poses serious risks to society as a whole. First, voluntary euthanasia is not necessary because alternative treatments exist. It is widely believed that there are only two options available to patients with terminal illnesses: either they die slowly in unrelieved suffering or they receive euthanasia. In fact, there is a middle way, that of creative and compassionate care. In recent years, meticulous research in the field of palliative medicine has demonstrated that virtually all unpleasant symptoms experienced in the terminal illness process can be alleviated or substantially alleviated by already available techniques. This had its practical expression in the hospice movement, which allowed patients to manage symptoms at home or in the context of an inpatient care facility. It is not surprising that in the Netherlands, where euthanasia is now accepted, only a very rudimentary hospice movement exists. By contrast, in the United Kingdom, which has well-developed facilities for the specific care of terminally ill patients, a House of Lords committee recently ruled that there should be no change in the law to allow euthanasia.[1] This is not to deny that there are many patients currently dying in homes and hospitals who are not benefiting from these advances. In fact, there are many who receive less than optimal care. This is usually because there are no facilities in the immediate area or because local doctors do not have the training and skills needed to adequately manage terminally ill patients. The solution to this problem is to make appropriate and effective care and training more widely available, not to offer doctors the easy option of euthanasia. A law allowing euthanasia will undermine individual and corporate incentives for creative care.2. Requests for voluntary euthanasia are rarely free and voluntary. A patient with a terminal illness is vulnerable. He lacks the knowledge and skills to relieve his symptoms and may suffer from fear about the future and anxiety about the effect his illness is having on others.