Complexities in Euthanasia or Physician-Assisted Suicide as Perceived by Dutch Physicians and Patients' Relatives

Context. The practice of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide (EAS) is always complex, but some cases are more complex than others. The nature of these unusually complex cases is not known. Objectives. To identify and categorize the characteristics of EAS requests that are more complex than others. Methods. We held in-depth interviews with 28 Dutch physicians about their perception of complex cases of EAS requests. We also interviewed 26 relatives of patients who had died by EAS. We used open coding and inductive analysis to identify various different aspects of the complexities described... Mehr ...