[Death and assisted death--current medical, ethical and legal questions]

Taking care of dying people is one of the most difficult obligations of the physician, perhaps the most difficult one. In this field, a lot of ethical problems arise which have to be coped with. In German the term "Sterbehilfe" ("helping to die") has more and more replaced the medical term "euthanasia". At present there are doubts whether this new term "helping to die" is useful because it might reflect liberal attitudes towards human life. Due to this terminological uncertainty many physicians are in two minds about the way of taking care of dying patients. Using an exact and unequivocal term for dying without pain and torture is an important demand for modern medicine in order to increase people's confidence in the last stage of their lives.