The idea of passive euthanasia has recently been attacked in a particularly clear and explicit way by an "Ethics Task Force" established by the European Association of Palliative Care (EAPC) in February 2001. It claims that the expression "passive euthanasia" is a contradiction in terms and hence that there can be no such thing. This paper critically assesses the main arguments for the Task For...

BACKGROUND Nurses have an important role in caring for terminally ill patients. They are also often involved in euthanasia. However, little is known about their attitudes towards it. OBJECTIVES To investigate on a nationwide level nurses' attitudes towards euthanasia and towards their role in euthanasia, and the possible relation with their socio-demographic and work-related characteristics. ...

BACKGROUND The practices of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide remain controversial. OBJECTIVE To achieve better understanding of attitudes and practices regarding euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide in the context of end-of-life care. DESIGN Cohort study. SETTING United States. PARTICIPANTS 3299 oncologists who are members of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. ME...

BACKGROUND The Netherlands was the first country in the world to implement a Euthanasia Act in 2002. It is unknown whether legalizing euthanasia under strict conditions influences the number and nature of euthanasia requests. AIM To investigate changes in the number of, and reasons for, requests for euthanasia in Dutch general practice after implementation of the Euthanasia Act. DESIGN OF S...

BACKGROUND We wanted to examine how the acceptance of euthanasia among the general public in Western Europe has changed in the last decades, and we wanted to look for possible explanations. METHODS We analysed data from the European Values Surveys, held in 1981, 1990, and 1999-2000 in 12 West European countries. In each country, representative samples of the general public were interviewed us...

Issues pertaining to euthanasia, assisted suicide, and cessation of life support continue to be a subject of worldwide interest. Euthanasia- particularly "active" euthanasia- is not considered legally or socially acceptable in most countries. In Japan, the first judgment of a case involving euthanasia took place in 1949. Since then there have been another five cases that reached the point of se...

This study explores expressed wishes and requests for euthanasia (i.e. administration of lethal drugs at the explicit request of the patient), and incidence of end-of-life decisions with possible life-shortening effects (ELDs) in advanced lung cancer patients in Flanders, Belgium. We performed a prospective, longitudinal, observational study of a consecutive sample of advanced lung cancer patie...

BACKGROUND The question whether euthanasia should be legalised has led to substantial public debate in France. The objective of this study in a sample of French physicians was to establish the potential determinants of a favourable opinion about euthanasia in general and when faced with a specific situation as embodied in the Humbert affair. METHODS The study was a cross-sectional survey inve...

CONTEXT Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide (PAS) are highly controversial issues. While there are studies of seriously ill patients' interest in euthanasia and PAS, there are no data on the attitudes and desires of terminally ill patients regarding these issues. OBJECTIVE To determine the attitudes of terminally ill patients toward euthanasia and PAS, whether they seriously were consid...