Drugs Used for Euthanasia: A Repeated Population-Based Mortality Follow-Back Study in Flanders, Belgium, 1998-2013

Journal of Pain and Symptom Management
Sigrid DierickxKenneth Chambaere

Abstract

According to guideline recommendations, barbiturates and neuromuscular relaxants are the recommended drugs for euthanasia. To describe changes over time in drugs used to perform euthanasia and differences in case characteristics according to the drugs used. Repeated population-based mortality follow-back study among physicians attending a large representative sample of deaths in 1998, 2007, and 2013 in Flanders, Belgium. In 1998, we identified 25 euthanasia cases (1.2% of all deaths), 142 cases in 2007 (2.0% of all deaths), and 349 cases in 2013 (4.6% of all deaths). Use of recommended drugs to perform euthanasia increased from 11.9% of euthanasia cases in 1998 to 55.3% in 2007 and 66.8% in 2013 (P < 0.001). In 2013, cases with recommended drugs compared with nonrecommended drugs more often involved requests expressed both orally and in writing (86.8%/14.1%; P < 0.001), consultation with colleague physicians (93.8%/69.1%; P < 0.001), and administration in the presence of another physician (98.3%/54.3%; P < 0.001), and were more often self-labeled by physicians as euthanasia (95.5%/0.9%; P < 0.001) and reported to the euthanasia review committee (92.3%/3.8%; P < 0.001). Between 2007 and 2013, physicians consistently labeled case...Continue Reading

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Citations

Nov 5, 2019·BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care·Sigrid Dierickx, Joachim Cohen
Jan 26, 2021·The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy·Kasper RausSigrid Sterckx

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