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Physician-Assisted Suicide and the Dutch Courts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2009

J.K.M. Gevers
J.K.M. Gevers
Affiliation:
professor of health law at the University of Amsterdam where he teaches both in the faculty of law and in the faculty of medicine. He is also one of the editors of the European Journal of Health Law.
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Extract

Over the last two decades, Dutch courts have left room for euthanasia (i.e., the deliberate termination of the life of a person on his request by another person). Although a crime under the Penal Code, euthanasia will usually not result in prosecution and conviction if it is committed by a physician according to rules of careful medical practice (including consultation of another physician); if the patient's request is voluntary, well-considered, and enduring; and if there is unacceptable and hopeless suffering and there are no other solutions to the patient's situation.

Type
Special Section: Physician-Aided Death: The Escalating Debate
Information
Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , Winter 1996 , pp. 93 - 99
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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References

Notes

1. Dillmann, RJM, Legemaate, J. Euthanasia in The Netherlands: the state of the legal debate. European Journal of Health Law 1994;1:81–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

2. Gevers, JKM. Legislation on euthanasia: recent developments in The Netherlands. Journal of Medical Ethics 1992;18:138–41.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

3. Royal Dutch Medical Association. Hulp bij zelfdoding bij psychiatrische patienten [Assisted suicide and mental patients], Utrecht, 1993.Google Scholar

4. Dutch Society for Voluntary Euthanasia. Rapport inzake hulp bij zelfdodingsvragen [Report on issues in assisted suicide]. Revised edition.Amsterdam, 1993.Google Scholar