Palliative care or assisted suicide?

Families' experiences with patients who died after assisted suicide: a retrospective interview study in southern Switzerland.

BACKGROUND In Switzerland, if certain conditions are met, assisted suicide is not prosecuted. International debate suggests that requests for hasten death are often altered by the provision of palliative care. Aims of the study were to explore patients' reasons for choice of assisted suicide and family perceptions of the interactions with health care professionals. PATIENTS AND METHODS This i...

Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide: A white paper from the European Association for Palliative Care.

BACKGROUND In recognition of the ongoing discussion on euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide, the Board of Directors of the European Association for Palliative Care commissioned this white paper from the palliative care perspective. AIM This white paper aims to provide an ethical framework for palliative care professionals on euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. It also aims to prov...

Bioethics for clinicians: 11. Euthanasia and assisted suicide.

Euthanasia and assisted suicide involve taking deliberate action to end or assist in ending the life of another person on compassionate grounds. There is considerable disagreement about the acceptability of these acts and about whether they are ethically distinct from decisions to forgo life-sustaining treatment. Euthanasia and assisted suicide are punishable offences under Canadian criminal la...

Thwarting assisted suicide threatens palliative care.

Attitudes and Practices of Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide in the United States, Canada, and Europe.

IMPORTANCE The increasing legalization of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide worldwide makes it important to understand related attitudes and practices. OBJECTIVE To review the legal status of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide and the available data on attitudes and practices. EVIDENCE REVIEW Polling data and published surveys of the public and physicians, official state and ...

When Suicide Is Not Suicide: Self-induced Morbidity and Mortality in the General Hospital

Suicidal phenomena in the general hospital can take a variety of forms that can be parsed by taking into account whether or not the patient 1) intended to hasten death, and 2) included collaborators, including family and health care providers, in the decision to act. These two criteria can be used to distinguish entities as diverse as true suicide, non-compliance, euthanasia/physician-assisted ...