Euthanasia and assisted suicide in the Netherlands

Common card · No. 326646

Euthanasia and assisted suicide in the Netherlands are regulated by the Termination of Life on Request and Assisted Suicide (Review Procedures) Act which was passed and took in effect in 2002. It states that euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide are not punishable if the attending physician acts in accordance with criteria of due care. These criteria concern the patient's request, the patient's suffering (unbearable and hopeless), the information provided to the patient, the absence of reasonable alternatives, consultation of another physician and the applied method of ending life. To demonstrate their compliance, the Act requires physicians to consult another, independent colleague before the euthanasia (a so called "SCEN doctor") and to send a report after the euthanasia to a review committee.

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