title: Relatives' perspective on the terminally ill patients who died after euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide: a retrospective cross-sectional interview study in the Netherlands.
abstract: This study used retrospective interviews with 87 relatives to describe the experiences of patients who died by euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide (EAS) in the Netherlands. Most of the patients suffered from cancer (85%). The relatives were most often a partner (63%) or a child (28%) of the patient. Before explicitly requesting EAS most patients (79%) had spoken about their wishes concerning medical end-of-life decisions to be made at a later date. Hopeless suffering, loss of dignity, and no prospect of recovery were the most prevalent reasons for explicitly requesting EAS. According to the relative, in 92% of patients EAS had contributed favourably to the quality of the end of life, mainly by preventing or ending suffering.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public and Occupational Health, Institute for Research in Extramural Medicine, VU Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. j.georges@vumc.nl
authors.forename: Jean-Jacques
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Georges
authors.forename: Bregje D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Onwuteaka-Philipsen
authors.forename: Martien T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Muller
authors.forename: Gerrit
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Van Der Wal
authors.forename: Agnes
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Van Der Heide
authors.forename: Paul J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Van Der Maas
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living / Q000523:psychology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D028601:Euthanasia, Active / Q000523:psychology; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D009426:Netherlands; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology; D012297:Right to Die; D017236:Suicide, Assisted / Q000523:psychology; D019452:Terminally Ill / Q000523:psychology