Euthanasia and assisted suicide in the context of psychiatric disorders: sharing experiences from the Low Countries

1	Collaborative Antwerp Psychiatric Research Institute, Antwerp University, Belgium
2	Belgium Professional Association for Medical Specialists in Psychiatry
3	PC Multiversum, Boechout, Belgium
4	Zorggroep Alexianen, Tienen, Belgium
5	Bioethics Institute Ghent and End-of-Life Care Research Group Ghent University, Belgium
6	Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Department of Philosophy & Moral Sciences Ghent University, Belgium

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR

Geert Dom

Antwerp University (CAPRI, UA)

Submission date: 2020-04-01

Final revision date: 2020-06-16

Acceptance date: 2020-06-16

Online publication date: 2020-08-31

Publication date: 2020-08-31

Psychiatr Pol 2020;54(4):661–672

DOI: https://doi.org/10.12740/PP/124078

English (PDF)

Polish (PDF)

KEYWORDS

euthanasia

physician assisted suicide

psychiatric disorder

TOPICS

Community psychiatry

ABSTRACT

Euthanasia and physician assisted suicide (E/PAS) in the context of unbearable psychological or emotional suffering related to psychiatric disorders (psychiatric E/PAS) is ahighly debated topic. In Belgium and The Netherlands, the law allows for psychiatric E/PAS since 2002. The aim of this article is to give an overview of the Belgian and Dutch experiences and the questions raised during the last decade of real-life experiences with psychiatric E/PAS. We use the available national data on psychiatric E/PAS to present a quantitative overview of the current situation. In addition, we identified different challenges; i.e. ethical, medicalpsychiatric and legal, that increasingly impact and change the attitudes within the medical and psychiatric professional community towards psychiatric E/PAS.

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Indexes

eISSN:	2391-5854
ISSN:	0033-2674

The journal is supported by the State Treasury as part of the Development of Scientific Journals (RCN) program
Project no. RCN/SN/0610/2021/1 implemented from 2022 to 2024
Total value of the project: PLN 490 000
Amount funded by the MEiN: PLN 100 000
Aims of the project: Publication in Open Access mode on the Internet of English and Polish language versions of 12 consecutive issues of the journal Psychiatria Polska (years 2022-2024). Modernization and redesign of the journal’s website. Financing of the Editorial System. Copy editing and proofreading of journal issues. Counteracting scientific misinformation. Submission of electronic versions of the journal to the National Digital Library Polona and the Digital Library of Scientific Publications Academica.