Physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia in the Netherlands and Oregon

2021 ◽  
pp. 117-126
Author(s):  
Herbert Hendin ◽  
Josephine Hendin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Palliative Care ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
The United States ◽  
Physical Illness ◽  
Physician Assisted Suicide ◽  
Assisted Death ◽  
Reporting Practices

Physician-assisted suicide (PAS) was sanctioned in Oregon in 1977, before advances in palliative care made it possible to relieve the suffering associated with serious illnesses. Depression associated with physical illness was assumed to be an inevitable consequence of terminal illnesses. These provided the impetus for legalization in Oregon which became a model for laws, implementation, and reporting practices in the United States and other countries. Since 2002, the Netherlands have had experience with PAS, as well as euthanasia. Both environments have seen an increase in patients utilizing these practices. While there is advocacy from interest groups favouring these practices, questions are raised about the use, implementation, requirements, and reporting practices. This text explores the experience of assisted death in Oregon and the Netherlands, from medical/psychological perspectives.

End-of-Life Care in the Netherlands and the United States: A Comparison of Values, Justifications, and Practices

1997 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy E. Quill ◽  
Gerrit Kimsma
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
End Of Life ◽  
End Of Life Care ◽  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Ethical Climate ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Life Care ◽  
Physician Assisted Suicide

Voluntary active euthanasia (VAE) and physician-assisted suicide (PAS) remain technically illegal in the Netherlands, but the practices are openly tolerated provided that physicians adhere to carefully constructed guidelines. Harsh criticism of the Dutch practice by authors in the United States and Great Britain has made achieving a balanced understanding of its clinical, moral, and policy implications very difficult. Similar practice patterns probably exist in the United States, but they are conducted in secret because of a more uncertain legal and ethical climate. In this manuscript, we plan to compare end-of-life care in the United States and the Netherlands with regard to underlying values, justifications, and practices. We will explore the risks and benefits of each system for a real patient who was faced with a common end-of-life clinical dilemma, and close with challenges for public policies in both countries.

Rights of the Terminally Ill Act of the Australian Northern Territory

1996 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 157-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert L. Schwartz
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Terminally Ill ◽  
Federal Court ◽  
The United States ◽  
Intractable Pain ◽  
Physician Assisted Suicide ◽  
Death With Dignity ◽  
Assisted Death ◽  
Court Of Appeals

Over the past year the debate over physician-assisted death has been waged in several courts and legislatures, and before at least one electorate as well. Measure 16, the Oregon Death With Dignity initiative that would permit physician-assisted suicide in some circumstances, was approved by the electorate; but it remains on hold while a permanent injunction issued against it by a Federal judge is reviewed by the United States Court of Appeals. Another Federal court judge's decision that the Washington statute criminalizing physician-assisted suicide was unconstitutional when applied to the case of a competent terminally ill patient in intractable pain, was reversed by a three judge panel of that same United States Court of Appeals.

Physician-Assisted Death: Can Philosophical Bioethics Aid Social Policy?

1998 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 339-347
Author(s):  
MARK G. KUCZEWSKI
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
United States Supreme Court ◽  
The United States ◽  
United States Supreme ◽  
Physician Assisted Suicide ◽  
Assisted Death ◽  
Left Behind

The debate regarding physician-assisted suicide continues in our society. Despite the recent opinions of the United States Supreme Court, this issue is unlikely to go away anytime soon. For a variety of reasons, this debate is now conducted in the legalistic terms of individual rights and liberties. As a result, perhaps we philosophers have been left behind. This is now a matter for the legal arena and philosophy is likely to be irrelevant. I would like to suggest otherwise for two reasons.

Hospice Care and the Bereavement Process in Two Countries: Experience from the United States and the Netherlands

2001 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-189
Author(s):  
Robert L. Wrenn ◽  
Zbigniew Zylicz ◽  
David E. Balk
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Outcomes Research ◽  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Hospice Care ◽  
The United States ◽  
Physician Assisted Suicide ◽  
Bereavement Care ◽  
Hospice Organization

The authors examine the bereavement process within hospice programs in the United States and in the Netherlands. Topics covered include brief histories of hospice within each country, circumstances that constrain bereavement outcomes research, approaches to hospice bereavement services in each country including bereavement program protocols developed by the National Hospice Organization for programs in the United States, issues of bereavement care and physician-assisted suicide, and an overall comparison of hospice bereavement services in each country.

Rights Discourse and Assisted Suicide

2001 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-99
Author(s):  
Penney Lewis
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
The United States ◽  
Medical Professionals ◽  
Physician Assisted Suicide ◽  
Criminal Trials ◽  
Supreme Courts ◽  
Rights Discourse ◽  
Law Professors

The debate surrounding the legalization of assisted suicide has been galvanized in recent years by reports of specific cases of assisted suicide, primarily involving physicians such as Kevorkian and Quill, and by impassioned pleas for legalization and assistance in suicide from individuals suffering in the throes of terminal or agonizing diseases, such as Sue Rodriguez. Media attention on criminal trials of individuals accused of assisting in a suicide has heightened public awareness of the issue. The constitutionality of criminal prohibitions on assisted suicide has been tested in various jurisdictions, and has recently been considered by the Supreme Courts of both the United States and Canada. Following two narrowly unsuccessful attempts to enact dignified death provisions by referenda in Washington and California, Oregon voters passed the first of such proposed laws in November 1994, providing for physician-assisted suicide under certain specified conditions. Attempts to introduce legislation to legalize assisted suicide in other jurisdictions have been galvanized by the success in Oregon. A model statute has been drafted by a group of law professors, philosophers and medical professionals.

The Practice of Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide in the United States

JAMA ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 280 (6) ◽  
pp. 507 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ezekiel J. Emanuel ◽  
Elisabeth R. Daniels ◽  
Diane L. Fairclough ◽  
Brian R. Clarridge
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
The United States ◽  
Physician Assisted Suicide
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