Last-Minute Recovery of a Psychiatric Patient Requesting Physician-Assisted Death
Open accessAbstract
Physician-assisted death is becoming legal in an increasing number of jurisdictions, but psychiatric patients are often explicitly excluded. However, in some countries, including the Netherlands, physician-assisted death of psychiatric patients is allowed. This Open Forum describes a patient with schizophrenia and symptoms diagnosed as refractory musical hallucinations. The patient requested assistance in dying only to recover after a mandatory second opinion, where his complaints were recognized as intrusive thoughts and treated accordingly. This case is used to reflect on how to deal with uncertainty about physician-assisted death of psychiatric patients and to argue for implementation of a due-diligence procedure, such as the one proposed in the Dutch Psychiatric Association's recent guideline concerning this issue.
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Cites
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“In terms of the irremedi-ability of the condition, the diagnostic and prognostic uncertainty complicates the assessment of eligibility for MAiD-MD [82], in particular because the possibility that a future intervention will succeed in alleviating the suffering still exists [38], but also because…”
Background
- Authors
- van Veen, S. M. P., Scheurleer, W. F. J., Ruijsch, M. L., Röder, C. H., Widdershoven, G. A. M., & Batalla, A.
- Affiliations
- Department of Psychiatry (van Veen, Röder, Batalla) and Faculty of Medicine (Scheurleer, Ruijsch), University Medical Center Utrecht Brain Center, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands; Department of Medical Humanities, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam (van Veen, Widdershoven).
- Utrecht University (NL)
- Venue
- Psychiatric Services
- Published
- 2020-06-01
- Volume
- 71
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 621-623
- ISSN
- 0022-1597 (ISSN-L)
- 1075-2730
- 1557-9700
- OpenAlex
- W3006183556
- Semantic Scholar
- 8a41c5b33f9eaf0b3d8a1600c9678d0b1eef99e3
- Cited by
- 13
- References
- 9
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 1
- FWCI
- 1.68
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- pure.amsterdamumc.nl
- Licence
- other-oa
- Locations
- Psychiatric Services (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Pure Amsterdam UMC (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- Amsterdam UMC (VU Amsterdam) - Institutional Repository (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- Utrecht University Repository (Utrecht University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- 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
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Healthcare Decision-Making and Restraints
- Keywords
- physician-assisted death, psychiatric patients, schizophrenia, musical hallucinations, intrusive thoughts, due diligence, assisted dying legislation
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Humans, Male, Netherlands, Referral and Consultation, Schizophrenia, Schizophrenic Psychology, Suicide, Assisted, Euthanasia, Active, Voluntary
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