2009/07/27 by Judith Rietjens, Paul J. van der Maas, Bregje D. Onwuteaka‐Philipsen +2 · 1 citation
Medicine · Psychology · Nursing · #Palliative Care and End-of-Life Issues #Childhood Cancer Survivors' Quality of Life #Ethics and Legal Issues in Pediatric Healthcare #Certainty #Medical law #Assisted suicide #Medicine #End-of-life care #Palliative care #Transparency (behavior) #Medical ethics #Empirical research #Psychology #Law #Psychiatry #Nursing #Political science
paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/s11673-009-9172-3
openalex publication_date 2009/07/27 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
Two decades of research on euthanasia in the Netherlands have resulted into clear insights in the frequency and characteristics of euthanasia and other medical end-of-life decisions in the Netherlands. These empirical studies have contributed to the quality of the public debate, and to the regulating and public control of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. No slippery slope seems to have occurred. Physicians seem to adhere to the criteria for due care in the large majority of cases. Further, it has been shown that the majority of physicians think that the euthanasia Act has improved their legal certainty and contributes to the carefulness of life-terminating acts. In 2005, eighty percent of the euthanasia cases were reported to the review committees. Thus, the transparency envisaged by the Act still does not extend to all cases. Unreported cases almost all involve the use of opioids, and are not considered to be euthanasia by physicians. More education and debate is needed to disentangle in these situations which acts should be regarded as euthanasia and which should not. Medical end-of-life decision-making is a crucial part of end-of-life care. It should therefore be given continuous attention in health care policy and medical training. Systematic periodic research is crucial for enhancing our understanding of end-of-life care in modern medicine, in which the pursuit of a good quality of dying is nowadays widely recognized as an important goal, in addition to the traditional goals such as curing diseases and prolonging life.