| ISSUE SUMMARY |
| Disabilities Ethical History International Medical Psychological Religious |
Australia Euthanasia advocates work to make suicide easy. Belgium Canada England Germany Netherlands Killing Babies, Compassionately. The Netherlands follows in Germany’s footsteps. Seduced by Death: Doctors, Patients, and Assisted Suicide The Slippery Slope: The Dutch Example New Zealand Switzerland Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia in Switzerland Assisted-Suicide in Switzerland |
Open Regulation and Practice in Assisted Dying G. Bosshard et al., Open Regulation and Practice in Assisted Dying, Swiss Med. Wkly, Oct. 12, 2002, at 527.The Netherlands, Oregon and Switzerland are the only areas in the world where assistance in dying has legally been practiced in recent years. This article provides a detailed comparison of the history of the origins, legislation, monitoring systems and the extent of assistance in dying in these three places. It shows that the actual practice in Switzerland which, unlike Oregon, also allows assistance in suicide by means of infusions or gastric tubes, can today be technically quite similar to the permitted practice of active euthanasia on request in the Netherlands. Considering the preconditions restricting these practices, Swiss regulations are the most open, in that the law requires neither a medical second opinion (e.g., Netherlands and Oregon) nor terminal illness (e.g., Oregon) are a prerequisite to assistance in dying. In 2001, the proposition of assisted deaths (as reported to the authorities) in all deaths was almost ten times higher in the Netherlands (1.5% of all deaths) than in Oregon (<0.1% of all deaths) or Switzerland (0.2% of all deaths). The analysis of the different normative concepts underlying legislation reveals that in the Netherlands the basis for non-prosecution lies in the conflict of the physician’s duties to respect life versus relief of suffering, while in the USA and in Switzerland the right-to-die concept plays a major role. These two concepts allow appreciation of distinctions between the roles of the physician in end-of-life practices and between assisted suicide and voluntary active euthanasia. Posted on June 26, 2004. |