Reporting of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide in the Netherlands: descriptive study.
BACKGROUND
An important principle underlying the Dutch Euthanasia Act is physicians' responsibility to alleviate patients' suffering. The Dutch Act states that euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide are not punishable if the attending physician acts in accordance with criteria of due care. These criteria concern the patient's request, the patient's suffering (unbearable and hopeless), the information provided to the patient, the presence of reasonable alternatives, consultation of another physician and the applied method of ending life. To demonstrate their compliance, the Act requires physicians to report euthanasia to a review committee. We studied which arguments Dutch physicians use to substantiate their adherence to the criteria and which aspects attract review committees' attention.


METHODS
We examined 158 files of reported euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide cases that were approved by the review committees. We studied the physicians' reports and the verdicts of the review committees by using a checklist.


RESULTS
Physicians reported that the patient's request had been well-considered because the patient was clear-headed (65%) and/or had repeated the request several times (23%). Unbearable suffering was often substantiated with physical symptoms (62%), function loss (33%), dependency (28%) or deterioration (15%). In 35%, physicians reported that there had been alternatives to relieve patients' suffering which were refused by the majority. The nature of the relationship with the consultant was sometimes unclear: the consultant was reported to have been an unknown colleague (39%), a known colleague (21%), otherwise (25%), or not clearly specified in the report (24%). Review committees relatively often scrutinized the consultation (41%) and the patient's (unbearable) suffering (32%); they had few questions about possible alternatives (1%).


CONCLUSIONS
Dutch physicians substantiate their adherence to the criteria in a variable way with an emphasis on physical symptoms. The information they provide is in most cases sufficient to enable adequate review. Review committees' control seems to focus on (unbearable) suffering and on procedural issues.
Department of Public Health, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. h.buiting@erasmusmc.nl
Hilde
H
Buiting
Johannes
J
van Delden
Bregje
B
Onwuteaka-Philpsen
Judith
J
Rietjens
Mette
M
Rurup
Donald
D
van Tol
Joseph
J
Gevers
Paul
P
van der Maas
Agnes
A
van der Heide
D057189:Checklist; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000941:ethics*; D003657:Decision Making / Q000941:ethics; D028741:Ethics Committees, Clinical; D026690:Ethics, Clinical; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D005066:Euthanasia, Passive / Q000941:ethics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008499:Medical Records; D009426:Netherlands / Q000453:epidemiology; D010819:Physician's Role; D011379:Prognosis; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D012297:Right to Die; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D017236:Suicide, Assisted / Q000941:ethics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data