Judgement of suffering in the case of a euthanasia request in The Netherlands

Introduction: In The Netherlands, physicians have to be convinced that the patient suffers unbearably and hopelessly before granting a request for euthanasia. The extent to which general practitioners (GPs), consulted physicians and members of the euthanasia review committees judge this criterion si...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Authors: Rietjens, J. A. C. (Author) ; van Tol, D. G. (Author) ; Schermer, M. (Author) ; van der Heide, A. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
Drawer...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Published: BMJ Publ. 2009
In: Journal of medical ethics
Year: 2009, Volume: 35, Issue: 8, Pages: 502-507
Online Access: Volltext (JSTOR)
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)

MARC

LEADER 00000caa a22000002 4500
001 1816137715
003 DE-627
005 20230427161245.0
007 cr uuu---uuuuu
008 220908s2009 xx |||||o 00| ||eng c
024 7 |a 10.1136/jme.2008.028779  |2 doi 
035 |a (DE-627)1816137715 
035 |a (DE-599)KXP1816137715 
040 |a DE-627  |b ger  |c DE-627  |e rda 
041 |a eng 
084 |a 1  |2 ssgn 
100 1 |a Rietjens, J. A. C.  |e VerfasserIn  |4 aut 
245 1 0 |a Judgement of suffering in the case of a euthanasia request in The Netherlands 
264 1 |c 2009 
336 |a Text  |b txt  |2 rdacontent 
337 |a Computermedien  |b c  |2 rdamedia 
338 |a Online-Ressource  |b cr  |2 rdacarrier 
520 |a Introduction: In The Netherlands, physicians have to be convinced that the patient suffers unbearably and hopelessly before granting a request for euthanasia. The extent to which general practitioners (GPs), consulted physicians and members of the euthanasia review committees judge this criterion similarly was evaluated.Methods: 300 GPs, 150 consultants and 27 members of review committees were sent a questionnaire with patient descriptions. Besides a “standard case” of a patient with physical suffering and limited life expectancy, the descriptions included cases in which the request was mainly rooted in psychosocial or existential suffering, such as fear of future suffering or dependency. For each case, respondents were asked whether they recognised the case from their own practice and whether they considered the suffering to be unbearable.Results: The cases were recognisable for almost all respondents. For the “standard case” nearly all respondents were convinced that the patient suffered unbearably. For the other cases, GPs thought the suffering was unbearable less often (2-49%) than consultants (25-79%) and members of the euthanasia review committees (24-88%). In each group, the suffering of patients with early dementia and patients who were “tired of living” was least often considered to be unbearable.Conclusions: When non-physical aspects of suffering are central in a euthanasia request, there is variance between and within GPs, consultants and members of the euthanasia committees in their judgement of the patient’s suffering. Possible explanations could be differences in their roles in the decision-making process, differences in experience with evaluating a euthanasia request, or differences in views regarding the permissibility of euthanasia. 
700 1 |a van Tol, D. G.  |e VerfasserIn  |4 aut 
700 1 |a Schermer, M.  |e VerfasserIn  |4 aut 
700 1 |a van der Heide, A.  |e VerfasserIn  |4 aut 
773 0 8 |i Enthalten in  |t Journal of medical ethics  |d London : BMJ Publ., 1975  |g 35(2009), 8, Seite 502-507  |h Online-Ressource  |w (DE-627)323607802  |w (DE-600)2026397-1  |w (DE-576)260773972  |x 1473-4257  |7 nnns 
773 1 8 |g volume:35  |g year:2009  |g number:8  |g pages:502-507 
856 |3 Volltext  |u http://www.jstor.org/stable/27720386  |x JSTOR 
856 4 0 |u https://doi.org/10.1136/jme.2008.028779  |x Resolving-System  |z lizenzpflichtig  |3 Volltext 
856 4 0 |u http://jme.bmj.com/content/35/8/502.abstract  |x Verlag  |z lizenzpflichtig  |3 Volltext 
935 |a mteo 
951 |a AR 
ELC |a 1 
ITA |a 1  |t 1 
LOK |0 000 xxxxxcx a22 zn 4500 
LOK |0 001 4185591594 
LOK |0 003 DE-627 
LOK |0 004 1816137715 
LOK |0 005 20220908053511 
LOK |0 008 220908||||||||||||||||ger||||||| 
LOK |0 035   |a (DE-Tue135)IxTheo#2022-08-02#A203ED14619776743FC4215329925C4086A2CC52 
LOK |0 040   |a DE-Tue135  |c DE-627  |d DE-Tue135 
LOK |0 092   |o n 
LOK |0 852   |a DE-Tue135 
LOK |0 852 1  |9 00 
LOK |0 866   |x JSTOR#http://www.jstor.org/stable/27720386 
LOK |0 935   |a ixzs  |a ixrk  |a zota 
OAS |a 1  |b inherited from superior work 
ORI |a SA-MARC-ixtheoa001.raw