Ceilidh

Michael Zey
futurist3000@aol.com

CHICAGO - A study released Monday sheds new light on euthanasia in the Netherlands, the first country to legalize it for terminally ill people, finding that nearly one in eight adult patients who requested mercy killings decided not to go through with it. Nearly half of the euthanasia requests were carried out.

Belgium has since enacted a euthanasia law similar to the Netherlands. In the United States, Oregon is alone in allowing physician-assisted suicide, but its law is expected to be argued before the U.S. Supreme CourtU.S. Supreme Court this fall.

More than half of the doctors had not received a request. Out of 2,658 requests, 44 percent resulted in euthanasia. In 13 percent of the cases, the request was granted but the patient died before the act; in another 13 percent the patient died before the decision-making process was completed. In 12 percent, the physician refused the request. In another 13 percent, patients changed their minds. In the remaining cases, the decision was still ongoing at the time of the survey, or the doctor did not detail the reason euthanasia was not performed.

In cases in which doctors denied the requests, the most common reasons were not wanting to be a burden on their family, tired of living and depression.

The study does not mention the proposed guidelines for mercy killings of terminally ill newborns designed by officials at Groningen Academic Hospital. In November, officials there revealed they had already begun carrying out such procedures, euthanizing four severely ill newborns in 2003.

The Netherlands has a long history on the issue, where for decades euthanasia was outlawed but widely practiced and rarely prosecuted.

The study was conducted by researchers at the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam. Based on their study, the researchers concluded that physicians are reporting compliance with the official requirements for euthanasia in the Netherlands.

The study could not determine that, she said, because doctors self-reported on whether their efforts complied with Dutch rules, among other reasons.

The head of a group that opposes euthanasia agreed.

She said she fears the legalization of euthanasia gives a "stamp of approval" even in places where it is not legal and could eventually be suggested by insurance companies as another medical treatment option.

The number of euthanasia cases in the Netherlands rose last year to 1,886 from 1,815, according to the Health Ministry.

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Archives of Internal Medicine: archinte.ama-assn.org/


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