Has been defined as the "act of bringing about the death of a hopelessly ill and suffering person in a relatively quick and painless way for reasons of mercy."

As nina and erin were eating lunch in the central high school student cafeteria, they were discussing the news coverage about the girls' athletic coach being arrested for selling steroids to student athletes. "i think the guy just did it because they don't pay teachers enough money," nina suggested. "i bet the guy had some other kind of drug addiction he was trying to pay for," erin countered. nina and erin's ideas about the cause of the coach's drug-selling behavior are examples of: