Cited by 3Ethics and bioethics in healthcareHealthcare Decision-Making and RestraintsEthics and Legal Issues in Pediatric Healthcare

Autism and assisted suicide

Open access
Waddell, Michael M.·2020·Journal of Disability & Religion

Abstract

Autistic people have died by euthanasia and assisted suicide (EAS) in Belgium and the Netherlands. While these countries’ laws allow EAS for patients suffering from nonterminal psychological disorders when certain “due care” criteria are met, the practice of granting EAS for psychological disorders in general has drawn scrutiny. But there are complex issues specific to autism that have received little attention. The author examines three important questions about the Belgian and Dutch due care criteria as they pertain to autism. First, how might autism affect decision-making capacity for EAS? Second, how might autism affect the voluntariness of EAS requests? Third, is autism a medically futile condition such that there is no reasonable alternative to EAS for alleviating suffering? The author argues that what is known about autism vis-à-vis these due care criteria suggests that autistic people might be a vulnerable group at heightened risk for irremediable harm of premature death from EAS.

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.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1080/23312521.2019.1694463

Cites

92 of 92 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

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.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Previous studies described patients with autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disabilities who sought euthanasia as suffering differently from other patients, in terms of a lifelong experience of being misunderstood rather than their psychiatric illness.

    “particular attention should be paid to patients suffering from autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and intellectual disabilities and seeking euthanasia, as their suffering was described differently than other patients, in terms of their lifelong condition of being misunderstood, rather than their psychiatric illness”

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 3

  1. Regional Euthanasia Review Committees (RTEs). (n.d.). Judgments: All statements and explanations [Oordelen: Alle Uitspraken & Uitleg]. Retrieved from https://www.euthana- siecommissie.nl/uitspraken-en-uitleg.
  2. Regional Euthanasia Review Committees (RTEs) (2017). Case file 2017-80 [Oordelen 2017- 80]. Retrieved from https://www.euthanasiecommissie.nl/binaries/euthanasiecommissie/ documenten/publicaties/oordelen/2017/uitzichtloos-en-ondraaglijk-lijden/oordeel-2017-80/ Oordeel%20+%202017-80.pdf.
  3. 0b013e31827a7c3a · DOI

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Waddell, M. M.
Affiliations
Saint Mary's College (US)
Corresponding author
Waddell, Michael M.
Venue
Journal of Disability & Religion
Published
2019-12-17
Volume
24
Issue
1
Pages
1-28
ISSN
  • 2331-2521 (ISSN-L)
  • 2331-253X
OpenAlex
W2995319927
Cited by
3
References
92
Citations by year
2023: 2 · 2021: 1
FWCI
0.23
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Journal of Disability & Religion (publishedVersion)
  • PhilPapers (PhilPapers Foundation) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Ethics and bioethics in healthcare
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Healthcare Decision-Making and Restraints
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health › Ethics and Legal Issues in Pediatric Healthcare
Keywords
autism spectrum disorder, assisted suicide, euthanasia, decision-making capacity, futility, vulnerable populations, premature mortality, Belgium, Netherlands

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