Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia in the Netherlands: Lessons From the Dutch

Abstract

For 2 decades, both physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia have been given legal sanction in the Netherlands. In response to domestic and international concern about their policies, the Dutch government appointed a commission that oversaw a study of the practice of physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia in 1990. That study, which was largely replicated in a 1995 study, was supported by the Royal Dutch Medical Association with the promise that physicians who participated would receive immunity from prosecution for anything they revealed. In 1996, the investigators published a report of their new findings in Dutch and summarized their work in 2 articles in the