This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Herbert Hendin, MD
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention New York, NY

Chris Rutenfrans, PhD
Department of Justice The Hague, the Netherlands

Zbigniew Zylicz, MD
Hospice Rosenhuyvel Rozendaal, the Netherlands

JAMA. 1997;278(10):817-818.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

In Reply.

—If, as Dr O'Connor suggests, our article was able to convey that legally sanctioning guidelines for assisted suicide and euthanasia in the Netherlands does not work, we feel gratified. Dr Cheng's humorous insight would require no response if it were not for the fact that the "answers" in this case have serious consequences.

Some of the seeming discrepancy in viewpoints comes from an idiosyncratic way of classifying and counting cases used by the Dutch investigators. On the surface, it seems simple enough; euthanasia is regarded by the Dutch as, by definition, voluntary. Since there can then be no "involuntary euthanasia," if patients are put to death without their consent (approximately 1000 cases a year^1,2), the Dutch refer to it as "termination of patients without explicit request." Odd terminology, but at least consistent and understandable.

In a much larger number of cases—an estimated 1350 in 1990^1(p73) and 1896 in . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?