Physician-Assisted Death in Psychiatric Practice in the Netherlands

Abstract

Explicit requests for physician-assisted suicide are not uncommon in psychiatric practice in the Netherlands, but these requests are rarely granted. Psychiatric consultation for medical patients who request physician-assisted death is relatively rare.

‘Unbearable suffering’: a qualitative study on the perspectives of patients who request assistance in dying

“…This underlines the importance of ruling out a depression before agreeing to a request. In agreement with earlier studies, physicians were unwilling to cooperate in requests with psychiatric (co)diagnosis 24 25…”

Can physicians conceive of performing euthanasia in case of psychiatric disease, dementia or being tired of living?

“…One study from 1997 among psychiatrists showed that the main reasons for refusing EAS in psychiatric patients were doubts about whether all treatment options had been exhausted and whether the suffering was unbearable and hopeless 24. Furthermore, before 2012 physicians did not, or very rarely, heard about cases of EAS in psychiatric patients.…”

Policy statements and practice guidelines for medical end-of-life decisions in Dutch health care institutions: Developments in the past decade

“…Also more than half of the psychiatric hospitals had no practice guidelines on EAS. This is remarkable, since explicit and persistent requests for physician-assisted suicide are not uncommon in Dutch psychiatric practice [28]. In 1998, practice guidelines were formulated to assist psychiatrists in handling requests for physician-assisted suicide from psychiatric patients [29].…”