Abstract
The three relevant categories of Dutch doctors who are involved in the practice of euthanasia are GPs, nursing-home doctors, and specialists. Every person in the Netherlands has a more or less permanent relationship with a GP, who provides primary health care and is the point of entry for specialist care. GPs have the most extensive experience with euthanasia insofar as they discuss it most frequently with their patients, they receive two-thirds of all requests, and they are generally the most willing to perform it. The level of experience with euthanasia among specialists is about half that of GPs (with 3% of all deaths in their practice attributable to euthanasia). By contrast, euthanasia plays a small role in the practice of nursing-home doctors, who receive relatively few requests (only a fifth of them have ever honored one).1
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References
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Two important precedents, Prins and Kadijk, not considered here were concerned with the termination of life of severely defective newborn babies. Cf. Griffiths et al, Euthanasia and Law in the Netherlands, op. cit., pp. 83–84, 341–351. For further deliberation, see A. van der Heide, P.J. van der Maas, G. van der Wal et al, “Medical End-of-life Decisions Made for Neonates and Infants in the Netherlands,” Lancet, Vol. 350 (1997): 251–255; Henk Jochemsen, “Dutch Court Decisions on Nonvoluntary Euthanasia Critically Reviewed,” Issues in Law & Medicine, Vol. 13, No. 4 (1998), esp. pp. 450–458; Arlene Judith Klotzko, “What Kind of Life? What Kind of Death? An Interview with Dr. Henk Prins,” in David C. Thomasma, Thomasine Kimbrough-Kushner, Gerrit K. Kimsma, and Chris Ciesielski-Carlucci (eds.), Asking to Die, op. cit., pp. 388–406; Joseph B. Vander Veer Jr., “Euthanasia in the Netherlands,” op. cit.
Dr. Herbert Cohen, a well-known practitioner of euthanasia in the Netherlands, explains that all of the cases that have broken new ground in Dutch law involved women by saying that women can make an appeal to a doctor that is stronger, more existential. See Herbert Hendin, “Seduced by Death: Doctors, Patients and the Dutch Cure,” Issues in Law and Medicine, Vol. 10, No. 2 (1994), p. 137. In general, more euthanasia cases are found in women than in men. Cf. Gerrit van der Wal and Paul J. van der Maas, “Empirical Research on Euthanasia and Other Medical End-of-Life Decisions and the Euthanasia Notification Procedure,” op. cit., p. 157.
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B. Sneiderman and M. Verhoef, “Patient Autonomy and the Defence of Medical Necessity: Five Dutch Euthanasia Cases,” op. cit., p. 402. According to Hendin, two of the experts did not recommend Dr. Chabot to assist in her suicide. See “Seduced by Death: Doctors, Patients and the Dutch Cure,” op. cit., p. 147. I asked Chabot about this discrepancy, and he explained “both Sneiderman et al. and Hendin are right; they simply refer to different moments in the process.” Sneiderman et al. refer to the period when Mrs. B. was still alive, whereas Hendin refers to the later phase, when the Medical Disciplinary Board invited another expert to give his opinion and he disagreed with Chabot. Strictly speaking, this latter expert was not consulted by Chabot. Letter dated August 14, 2000.
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(2005). The Practice of Euthanasia and The Legal Framework. In: Euthanasia in the Netherlands. International Library of Ethics, Law, and the New Medicine, vol 20. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-2251-7_3
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