Anyone can be diagnosed with a terminal illness. It doesn't matter how healthy you are, who you are or what you do. Some terminal diseases can be prevented by avoiding unhealthy habits, eating healthily, exercising regularly and following vaccinations. However, some terminally ill patients cannot be helped, their illnesses cannot be cured, and the only thing possible to help them, other than providing pain medications, is to make them as comfortable as possible while they endure their condition. Many times medications do not provide the desired escape from pain and lead patients to seek immediate relief in methods such as euthanasia. Euthanasia is the practice of deliberately ending a life to relieve pain and suffering, but it is considered controversial because many religions believe that their creators are the only ones who should decide when their life's journey should reach its end. Euthanasia is performed by doctors or physicians and consists of administering a fatal dose of a suitable drug to the patient at his express request. Although most American states oppose euthanasia, the practice would bring more benefit than harm. The patient who is receiving the euthanasia drug will be able to proactively choose his own pursuit of happiness, relieve himself of all the accumulated pain and suffering, ease the burden he may feel he is placing on his family, and die with dignity, which is the most ethical option for patients in vegetative states and terminally ill patients. Euthanasia should remain an alternative to a slow and painful life for those who are terminally ill, in a vegetative state or would like to end their lives with dignity. Furthermore, the patient's family should be able to decide for the patient whether or not prolonging his life is moral. Another reason a patient may opt for euthanasia is to die with dignity. . The patient, fully aware of the state he is in, should be able to choose to die in every sense rather than through the natural course. A patient with an enlarging brain tumor may respectively choose to die, instead of attempting a risky surgery that could leave the patient worse off than before the operation, possibly brain dead. Or a patient with early signs of dementia or Alzheimer's disease may want to be euthanized before the disease progresses and causes a harmful loss of sentimental memories. Ultimately, it should be a patient's choice to undergo risky surgery or bite the bullet, and laws banning euthanasia should not limit the patient's options..