Van Delden participates in NEJM article on euthanasia

The Dutch Euthanasia Act was followed by a modest decrease in the rates of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. The decrease may have resulted from the increased application of other end-of-life care interventions, such as palliative sedation.

That is the conclusion of a Dutch team of researchers from the UMC Utrecht, Erasmus MC, Vrije Universiteit Medical Center Amsterdam, Academic Medical Center Amsterdam and Statistics Netherlands in an analysis of questionnaires sent to physicians attending 6860 deaths. They describe the results in today’s issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. Prof. dr. Hans van Delden from the Julius Center participated in the research.

In 2005, of all deaths in the Netherlands, 1.7% were the result of euthanasia and 0.1% were the result of physician-assisted suicide. These percentages were significantly lower than those in 2001, when 2.6% of all deaths resulted from euthanasia and 0.2% from assisted suicide.

Deep sedation
Of all deaths, 0.4% were the result of the ending of life without an explicit request by the patient. Continuous deep sedation was used in conjunction with possible hastening of death in 7.1% of all deaths in 2005, significantly increased from 5.6% in 2001. In 73.9% of all cases of euthanasia or assisted suicide in 2005, life was ended with the use of neuromuscular relaxants or barbiturates; opioids were used in 16.2% of cases. In 2005, 80.2% of all cases of euthanasia or assisted suicide were reported. Physicians were most likely to report their end-oflife practices if they considered them to be an act of euthanasia or assisted suicide, which was rarely true when opioids were used.

Read the article in NEJM that appeared today.