Evaluation of the notification procedure for physician-assisted death in The Netherlands
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: In the Netherlands, a notification procedure for physician-assisted death has been in use since 1991. It requires doctors to report each case to the coroner, who in turn notifies the public prosecutor. Ultimately, the Assembly of Prosecutors General decides whether to prosecute. Although physician-assisted death remains technically illegal, doctors are extremely unlikely to be prosecuted if they comply with the requirements for accepted practice. In 1995, the ministers of health and justice commissioned an evaluation to determine the adequacy of the notification procedure. METHODS: A random sample of 405 physicians were interviewed. We also interviewed 147 physicians who had reported cases of physician-assisted death and 116 coroners, and we reviewed 353 judicial files of reported cases. In addition, we interviewed 48 public prosecutors and reviewed the minutes of the Assembly of Prosecutors General for 1991 to 1995 and all published court decisions from 1981 through 1995. RESULTS: In 1995, about 41 percent of all cases of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide were reported. There were no major differences between reported and unreported cases in terms of the patients' characteristics, clinical conditions, or reasons for the action. Most patients had cancer and were described as suffering "unbearably" and 'hopelessly." Of the 6324 cases reported during the period from 1991 through 1995, only 13 involved prosecution of the physician. The majority of respondents in the groups interviewed thought that all cases of physician-assisted death should be reviewed, although most doctors thought the review should be performed by other doctors, and there was substantial concern about the burden associated with the reporting procedure. CONCLUSIONS: Substantial progress in the oversight of physician-assisted death has been achieved in the Netherlands. The reporting procedure could be more streamlined and less threatening.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
The citation lists haven’t been fetched yet
References 8 · Cited by 270
Research works printed but not linked: 12
- [1]1. van der Maas PJ, van Delden JJM, Pijnenborg L, Looman CWN. Eu- thanasia and other medical decisions concerning the end of life. Lancet 1991;338:669-74.
- [4]4. van der Wal G, van der Maas PJ, Bosma JM, et al. Evaluation of the notification procedure for physician-assisted death in the Netherlands. N Engl J Med 1996;335:1706-11.
- [5]5. Cochran WG. Sampling techniques. 2nd ed. New York: Wiley, 1963.
- [6]6. Pijnenborg L, van der Maas PJ, van Delden JJM, Looman CWN. Life- terminating acts without explicit request of patient. Lancet 1993;341: 1196-9.
- [7]7. Emanuel EJ, Fairclough DL, Daniels ER, Clarridge BR. Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide: attitudes and experiences of oncology patients, oncologists, and the public. Lancet 1996;347:1805-10.
- [8]8. Ward BJ, Tate PA. Attitudes among NHS doctors to requests for eutha- nasia. BMJ 1994;308:1332-4.
- [9]9. Stevens CA, Hassan R. Management of death, dying and euthanasia: at- titudes and practices of medical practitioners in South Australia. J Med Ethics 1994;20:41-6.
- [10]10. Folker AP, Holtug N, Jensen AB, Kappel K, Nielsen JK, Norup M. Ex- periences and attitudes towards end-of-life decisions amongst Danish phy- sicians. Bioethics 1996;10:233-49.
- [11]11. Lee MA, Nelson HD, Tilden VP, Ganzini L, Schmidt TA, Tolle SW. Legalizing assisted suicide -views of physicians in Oregon. N Engl J Med 1996;334:310-5.
- [12]12. Black AL, Wallace JI, Starks HE, Pearlman RA. Physician-assisted sui- cide and euthanasia in Washington State: patient requests and physician re- sponses. JAMA 1996;275:919-25.
- [18]18. van der Maas PJ, van Delden JJM, Pijnenborg L, Looman CWN. Eu- thanasia and other medical decisions concerning the end of life. Lancet 1991;338:669-74.
- [21]21. van der Wal G, Dillmann RJM. Euthanasia in the Netherlands. BMJ 1994;308:1346-9.
- Authors
- van der Maas, P. J., van der Wal, G., Haverkate, I., de Graaff, C. L. M., Kester, J. G. C., Onwuteaka-Philipsen, B. D., van der Heide, A., Bosma, J. M., Willems, D. L., van der Wal, G., van der Maas, P. J., Bosma, J. M., Onwuteaka-Philipsen, B. D., Willems, D. L., Haverkate, I., & Kostense, P. J.
- Affiliations
- Erasmus University Rotterdam (NL)
- Venue
- New England Journal of Medicine
- Publisher
- Massachusetts Medical Society
- Published
- 1996-11-28
- Volume
- 335
- Issue
- 22
- Pages
- 1706-1712
- ISSN
- 0028-4793 (ISSN-L)
- 1533-4406
- OpenAlex
- W2319068146
- Cited by
- 270
- References
- 8
- Citations by year
- 2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2020: 2 · 2018: 33 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 1 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 27.55
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- New England Journal of Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePub (Erasmus University Rotterdam) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- DigitalGeorgetown (Georgetown University Library) (submittedVersion)
- RePub (Erasmus University Rotterdam) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Palliative and Oncologic Care
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Palliative Care and End-of-Life Issues
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Ethics and bioethics in healthcare
- Keywords
- physician-assisted death, euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide, notification procedure, physician attitudes, cancer patients, Netherlands
- MeSH terms
- Attitude of Health Personnel, Data Collection, Euthanasia, Humans, Netherlands, Physicians, Random Allocation, Sampling Studies, Social Change, Social Control, Formal, Suicide, Assisted, Euthanasia, Active, Euthanasia, Active, Voluntary
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
