The principle of double effect is used to justify the administration of medication to relieve pain even though it may lead to the unintended, although foreseen, consequence of hastening death by causing respiratory depression. Although a review of…
OBJECTIVES: This study was conducted to determine how the decision-making process to forgo life support differs between southern and northern European pediatric intensive care units. DESIGN: Multiple-center, prospective study. SETTING: Thirty-nine…
Background The Dutch Euthanasia Act applies to patients 12 years and older, which makes euthanasia for minors younger than 12 legally impossible. The issue under discussion specifically regards the capacity of minors to request euthanasia. Objective…
The Supreme Court decision in Carter v. Canada (2015) has led to changes to the Canadian Criminal Code, such that physician-assisted death is now a legal option for consenting adult patients who have a 'grievous and irremediable medical condition'…
In the complex patient—doctor relationship, the principle of personal autonomy has gradually acquired more weight against medical paternalism, both in clinical practice and in bioethical thinking. 1 In many countries, this change has been…
BACKGROUND: Legalization of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide has been heavily debated in many countries. To help inform this debate, we describe the practices of euthanasia and assisted suicide, and the use of life-ending drugs without an…
OBJECTIVE: To create a protocol delineating the needs of patients, families, and staff necessary to provide a pain-free, dignified, family-, and staff-supported death for newborns who cannot benefit from intensive, life-extending, technological…
Recent laws in Europe now allow for pediatric euthanasia. The author reviews some rationale for caution, and addresses why ensuring the availability of pediatric palliative care is an important step before allowing pediatric euthanasia.
BACKGROUND: In the terminal stages of neuro-metabolic diseases, parents can begin to experience a sense of loss even before the child dies, and might accept death prematurely. CASES: A 2.5-year-old female patient with Sandoff Disease (diagnosed at 9…
Aim: Paediatricians caring for severely ill children may receive requests for physician-assisted dying (PAD). Dutch euthanasia law only applies to patients over 12 who make well-considered requests. These limitations have been widely debated, but…
Organ donation after euthanasia has been performed more than 70 times in Belgium and the Netherlands combined (personal communication, Jan Bollen, 2018). These two countries allow for euthanasia in minors as well, while Luxembourg, Colombia and…
The authors have undertaken a study to explore the views in non-Western cultures about ending the lives of newborns with genetic defects. This study consists of including active euthanasia alongside withdrawal and withholding of treatment as…
In pediatric settings, the concept of hope is frequently positioned as a fundamental aspect of care and at odds with the possibility and proximity of death. This arguably fosters silence about death and dying in childhood despite evidence indicating…
