CARLTON, Victoria, Australia / Mercator / Careful / August 6, 2011
By Michael Cook
Here is what the poll of 800 doctors found. The vast majority – 87% -- were willing in principle to participate in legal euthanasia. About 68% said that they had participated in euthanasia in the last 5 years. Of these, 29% did it once; 25% twice; 33% 3 to 5 times; and 11% more than 5 times.
Euthanasia is certainly on the agenda. In half of the doctors’ practices, euthanasia is a topic which is increasingly discussed. About 65% had felt pressure from patients or relatives to perform euthanasia and about half of them said that there was pressure to do it quickly. About a third of them felt that the pressure had increased over the last five years.
There was a limit for most of the doctors. About 74% said that they would not be willing to euthanase patients simply because they feared unbearable suffering. About 65% were not willing if patients are simply tired of living – although 20% were willing. In any case, such acts would be illegal, as euthanasia is only allowed if a patient is suffering unbearable pain from a terminal illness.
Most doctors are satisfied with the current state of euthanasia regulation in the Netherlands – about 76%. And in response to the statement “euthanasia has no place in a general practice”, 89% disagreed.
There is room for much confusion in a poll like this. In the Netherlands, terminal sedation is said to be displacing euthanasia to some extent. Several questions dealt with what the poll termed “palliative sedation”. About 90% had used this at some stage in the past 5 years. However, most doctors said that “palliative sedation” seldom led to the death of their patients.
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