Letters
Palliative care
Volume 199 - Issue 2

Doctors in support of law reform for voluntary euthanasia

Author:  Roger K Woodruff

Med J Aust 2013; 199 (2): 97. || doi: 10.5694/mja13.10377
Published online: 22 July 2013
To the Editor: The Doctors for Voluntary Euthanasia Choice want Australia to have enlightened euthanasia laws similar to those of the Netherlands.1 But a recent review of Dutch physician-assisted death (PAD) suggests that such practices are extremely difficult to control.2 They state that there has been some improvement in the rate of reporting of cases of euthanasia (a legal requirement), although only 2% of deaths classifiable ...
Download PDF (133 KB)
Share: Share on Blue Sky Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn Share by email

To the Editor: The Doctors for Voluntary Euthanasia Choice want Australia to have enlightened euthanasia laws similar to those of the Netherlands.1 But a recent review of Dutch physician-assisted death (PAD) suggests that such practices are extremely difficult to control.2

They state that there has been some improvement in the rate of reporting of cases of euthanasia (a legal requirement), although only 2% of deaths classifiable as euthanasia but employing morphine rather than muscle relaxants are reported.

Throughout the 1990s, it was reported that about 1000 patients a year were euthanased without request. The most common reasons given for not discussing euthanasia with these patients were that they were unconscious, they had a psychiatric disorder or dementia, or “assistance in dying was clearly in the best interest of the patient”. This provides a chilling insight into who is being killed.

In 2005 it was reported that there had been a fall in the incidence of euthanasia, but there was a compensatory rise in deaths involving palliative sedation (which do not have to be reported), and it was alleged that doctors were choosing this less administratively onerous alternative.

In the review, much is made of a special relationship between Dutch general practitioners and their patients, but one expert admits that “some physicians practice PAD without the emotional sensitivity that we have agreed is necessary”.

The latest Dutch report, for 2010, shows that the rate of euthanasia has increased again, the number of unreported cases has increased, the rate of euthanasia without request is a little lower but persists, and deaths involving palliative sedation have jumped 150% in 5 years.3

Despite claims that comprehensive regulatory mechanisms are in place, it seems that the Dutch are no closer to controlling PAD than when they started 30 years ago.

No one could seriously want this in Australia.

Author

  • Roger K Woodruff1
  • 1. Private Practice, Melbourne, VIC.

Correspondence: rwoodruf@bigpond.net.au

Competing interests

No relevant disclosures.

References

View this article on Wiley Online Library

More like this

View more