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'''Euthanasia for mental illness''' involves a [[physician]] intentionally ending the life of a patient who has requested [[euthanasia]] due to a [[psychiatric condition]]. The practice is legal in [[Euthanasia in Belgium|Belgium]],<ref name="De Hert Loos Van Assche 2023 p. 100549">{{cite journal | last=De Hert | first=Marc | last2=Loos | first2=Sien | last3=Van Assche | first3=Kristof | title=The Belgian euthanasia law under scrutiny of the highest courts | journal=The Lancet Regional Health - Europe | publisher=Elsevier BV | volume=24 | year=2023 | issn=2666-7762 | doi=10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100549 | page=100549}}</ref> the [[Euthanasia in the Netherlands|Netherlands]],<ref name="van Veen Widdershoven Beekman Evans 2022 p. ">{{cite journal | last=van Veen | first=SMP | last2=Widdershoven | first2=GAM | last3=Beekman | first3=ATF | last4=Evans | first4=N. | title=Physician Assisted Death for Psychiatric Suffering: Experiences in the Netherlands | journal=Frontiers in Psychiatry | publisher=Frontiers Media SA | volume=13 | date=2022-06-20 | issn=1664-0640 | doi=10.3389/fpsyt.2022.895387 | doi-access=free | page=}}</ref> [[Euthanasia in Luxembourg|Luxembourg]],<ref name="Guichet.lu 2023">{{cite web | title=Information on requesting euthanasia or assisted suicide | website=Guichet.lu | date=2023-12-08 | url=https://guichet.public.lu/en/citoyens/sante/fin-vie/euthanasie/euthanasie-assistance-suicide.html | access-date=2024-04-21}}</ref> [[Euthanasia in Spain|Spain]]<ref name="Ramos-Pozón Terribas-Sala Falcó-Pegueroles Román-Maestre 2023 p.">{{cite journal | last=Ramos-Pozón | first=Sergio | last2=Terribas-Sala | first2=Núria | last3=Falcó-Pegueroles | first3=Anna | last4=Román-Maestre | first4=Begoña | title=Persons with mental disorders and assisted dying practices in Spain: An overview | journal=International Journal of Law and Psychiatry | publisher=Elsevier BV | volume=87 | year=2023 | issn=0160-2527 | doi=10.1016/j.ijlp.2023.101871 | page=}}</ref> and [[Euthanasia in Colombia|Colombia]].<ref name="Kuntz 2022">{{cite web | last=Kuntz | first=Leah | title=First Colombian With Nonterminal Illness Legally Dies via Euthanasia | website=Psychiatric Times | date=2022-01-10 | url=https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/first-colombian-with-nonterminal-illness-legally-dies-via-euthanasia | access-date=2024-04-21}}</ref> In [[Canada]], legislation authorizing the procedure was passed, but has since been repeatedly postponed.<ref name="McCulloch 2024">{{cite web | last=McCulloch | first=Craig | title=Canada Postpones Plan to Allow Euthanasia for Mentally Ill | website=Voice of America | date=2024-02-09 | url=https://www.voanews.com/a/canada-postpones-plan-to-allow-euthanasia-for-mentally-ill-/7480548.html | access-date=2024-04-21}}</ref> |
'''Euthanasia for mental illness''' involves a [[physician]] intentionally ending the life of a patient who has requested [[euthanasia]] due to a [[psychiatric condition]]. The practice is legal in [[Euthanasia in Belgium|Belgium]],<ref name="De Hert Loos Van Assche 2023 p. 100549">{{cite journal | last=De Hert | first=Marc | last2=Loos | first2=Sien | last3=Van Assche | first3=Kristof | title=The Belgian euthanasia law under scrutiny of the highest courts | journal=The Lancet Regional Health - Europe | publisher=Elsevier BV | volume=24 | year=2023 | issn=2666-7762 | doi=10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100549 | page=100549}}</ref> the [[Euthanasia in the Netherlands|Netherlands]],<ref name="van Veen Widdershoven Beekman Evans 2022 p. ">{{cite journal | last=van Veen | first=SMP | last2=Widdershoven | first2=GAM | last3=Beekman | first3=ATF | last4=Evans | first4=N. | title=Physician Assisted Death for Psychiatric Suffering: Experiences in the Netherlands | journal=Frontiers in Psychiatry | publisher=Frontiers Media SA | volume=13 | date=2022-06-20 | issn=1664-0640 | doi=10.3389/fpsyt.2022.895387 | doi-access=free | page=}}</ref> [[Euthanasia in Luxembourg|Luxembourg]],<ref name="Guichet.lu 2023">{{cite web | title=Information on requesting euthanasia or assisted suicide | website=Guichet.lu | date=2023-12-08 | url=https://guichet.public.lu/en/citoyens/sante/fin-vie/euthanasie/euthanasie-assistance-suicide.html | access-date=2024-04-21}}</ref> [[Euthanasia in Spain|Spain]]<ref name="Ramos-Pozón Terribas-Sala Falcó-Pegueroles Román-Maestre 2023 p.">{{cite journal | last=Ramos-Pozón | first=Sergio | last2=Terribas-Sala | first2=Núria | last3=Falcó-Pegueroles | first3=Anna | last4=Román-Maestre | first4=Begoña | title=Persons with mental disorders and assisted dying practices in Spain: An overview | journal=International Journal of Law and Psychiatry | publisher=Elsevier BV | volume=87 | year=2023 | issn=0160-2527 | doi=10.1016/j.ijlp.2023.101871 | page=}}</ref> and [[Euthanasia in Colombia|Colombia]].<ref name="Kuntz 2022">{{cite web | last=Kuntz | first=Leah | title=First Colombian With Nonterminal Illness Legally Dies via Euthanasia | website=Psychiatric Times | date=2022-01-10 | url=https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/first-colombian-with-nonterminal-illness-legally-dies-via-euthanasia | access-date=2024-04-21}}</ref> In [[Canada]], legislation authorizing the procedure was passed, but has since been repeatedly postponed.<ref name="McCulloch 2024">{{cite web | last=McCulloch | first=Craig | title=Canada Postpones Plan to Allow Euthanasia for Mentally Ill | website=Voice of America | date=2024-02-09 | url=https://www.voanews.com/a/canada-postpones-plan-to-allow-euthanasia-for-mentally-ill-/7480548.html | access-date=2024-04-21}}</ref> |
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The practice is considered controversial as unlike with other types of euthanasia, a patient euthanized for mental illness alone is usually not [[terminally ill]], and may have their decisional capacity impeded by their condition.<ref name="Yasgur 2023">{{cite web | last=Yasgur | first=Batya Swift | title=Clinicians Talking: Euthanasia for SMI -- Right or Wrong? | website=Medscape | date=2023-08-03 | url=https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/995146?form=fpf#vp_2 | access-date=2024-04-21}}</ref><ref name="Olié Courtet 2016 p. 656">{{cite journal | last=Olié | first=Emilie | last2=Courtet | first2=Philippe | title=The Controversial Issue of Euthanasia in Patients With Psychiatric Illness | journal=JAMA | publisher=American Medical Association (AMA) | volume=316 | issue=6 | date=2016-08-09 | issn=0098-7484 | doi=10.1001/jama.2016.9883 | page=656}}</ref><ref name="Lane 2016">{{cite web | last=Lane | first=Charles | title=Europe’s morality crisis: Euthanizing the mentally ill | website=Washington Post | date=2016-10-19 | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/europes-morality-crisis-euthanizing-the-mentally-ill/2016/10/19/c75faaca-961c-11e6-bc79-af1cd3d2984b_story.html?utm_term=.33acc8eb3b24 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161202062139/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/europes-morality-crisis-euthanizing-the-mentally-ill/2016/10/19/c75faaca-961c-11e6-bc79-af1cd3d2984b_story.html?utm_term=.33acc8eb3b24 | archive-date=2016-12-02 | url-status=live | access-date=2024-04-21}}</ref> |
The practice is considered controversial as unlike with other types of euthanasia, a patient euthanized for mental illness alone is usually not [[terminally ill]], and may have their decisional capacity impeded by their condition.<ref name="Yasgur 2023">{{cite web | last=Yasgur | first=Batya Swift | title=Clinicians Talking: Euthanasia for SMI -- Right or Wrong? | website=Medscape | date=2023-08-03 | url=https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/995146?form=fpf#vp_2 | access-date=2024-04-21}}</ref><ref name="Olié Courtet 2016 p. 656">{{cite journal | last=Olié | first=Emilie | last2=Courtet | first2=Philippe | title=The Controversial Issue of Euthanasia in Patients With Psychiatric Illness | journal=JAMA | publisher=American Medical Association (AMA) | volume=316 | issue=6 | date=2016-08-09 | issn=0098-7484 | doi=10.1001/jama.2016.9883 | page=656}}</ref><ref name="Lane 2016">{{cite web | last=Lane | first=Charles | title=Europe’s morality crisis: Euthanizing the mentally ill | website=Washington Post | date=2016-10-19 | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/europes-morality-crisis-euthanizing-the-mentally-ill/2016/10/19/c75faaca-961c-11e6-bc79-af1cd3d2984b_story.html?utm_term=.33acc8eb3b24 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161202062139/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/europes-morality-crisis-euthanizing-the-mentally-ill/2016/10/19/c75faaca-961c-11e6-bc79-af1cd3d2984b_story.html?utm_term=.33acc8eb3b24 | archive-date=2016-12-02 | url-status=live | access-date=2024-04-21}}</ref> A 2023 study in ''[[Psychological Medicine]]'' argued that an objective standard for irremediability (incurability) could not be met for [[treatment-resistant depression]], with implications for euthanasia.<ref name="Nicolini Jardas Zarate Gastmans 2022 pp. 5729–5747">{{cite journal | last=Nicolini | first=Marie E. | last2=Jardas | first2=EJ | last3=Zarate | first3=Carlos A. | last4=Gastmans | first4=Chris | last5=Kim | first5=Scott Y. H. | title=Irremediability in psychiatric euthanasia: examining the objective standard | journal=Psychological Medicine | publisher=Cambridge University Press (CUP) | volume=53 | issue=12 | date=2022-10-28 | issn=0033-2917 | doi=10.1017/s0033291722002951 | pages=5729–5747}}</ref> |
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==By country== |
==By country== |
Revision as of 23:21, 21 April 2024
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Euthanasia for mental illness involves a physician intentionally ending the life of a patient who has requested euthanasia due to a psychiatric condition. The practice is legal in Belgium,[1] the Netherlands,[2] Luxembourg,[3] Spain[4] and Colombia.[5] In Canada, legislation authorizing the procedure was passed, but has since been repeatedly postponed.[6]
The practice is considered controversial as unlike with other types of euthanasia, a patient euthanized for mental illness alone is usually not terminally ill, and may have their decisional capacity impeded by their condition.[7][8][9] A 2023 study in Psychological Medicine argued that an objective standard for irremediability (incurability) could not be met for treatment-resistant depression, with implications for euthanasia.[10]
By country
Belgium
In Belgium, euthanasia for mental illness is legal if the patient is mentally competent to make the decision; the patient requests euthanasia on two separate occasions in writing; the patient is suffering from an incurable disease or mental illness, and all treatment options have been exhausted; and the patient is experiencing "unbearable suffering" from the illness, either physically or psychologically.[11] Three doctors must agree to grant euthanasia in psychiatric cases.[12][13] Euthanasia for mental suffering is not available for children.[14]
As of 2017, approximately 40 patients per year received euthanasia due to mental illness, out of approximately 2,000 total yearly euthanasia deaths.[14]
In 2020, a Belgium court acquitted three doctors, who had euthanized Tine Nys, a physically healthy 38-year-old woman with autism, of manslaughter charges.[15] Nys' sister Sophie Nys had filed a lawsuit alleging that the doctors did not properly attempt to treat her condition, and that Nys had not been incurably ill as the law required.[15]
Netherlands
Euthanasia for mental illness has been legal since 2002 in the Netherlands provided the patient has "unbearable suffering with no prospect of improvement" and has requested to die in a way that is "voluntary, well considered and with full conviction", among other criteria.[16][17] In 2020, the Supreme Court of the Netherlands ruled that physicians could euthanize patients with dementia if they had expressed a wish to die before the onset of their condition.[18]
In 2023, 138 people in the Netherlands received euthanasia due to psychiatric conditions, a 20% increase from 2022.[19] The first minor euthanized for a psychiatric condition was in 2023.[19]
References
- ^ De Hert, Marc; Loos, Sien; Van Assche, Kristof (2023). "The Belgian euthanasia law under scrutiny of the highest courts". The Lancet Regional Health - Europe. 24. Elsevier BV: 100549. doi:10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100549. ISSN 2666-7762.
- ^ van Veen, SMP; Widdershoven, GAM; Beekman, ATF; Evans, N. (2022-06-20). "Physician Assisted Death for Psychiatric Suffering: Experiences in the Netherlands". Frontiers in Psychiatry. 13. Frontiers Media SA. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2022.895387. ISSN 1664-0640.
- ^ "Information on requesting euthanasia or assisted suicide". Guichet.lu. 2023-12-08. Retrieved 2024-04-21.
- ^ Ramos-Pozón, Sergio; Terribas-Sala, Núria; Falcó-Pegueroles, Anna; Román-Maestre, Begoña (2023). "Persons with mental disorders and assisted dying practices in Spain: An overview". International Journal of Law and Psychiatry. 87. Elsevier BV. doi:10.1016/j.ijlp.2023.101871. ISSN 0160-2527.
- ^ Kuntz, Leah (2022-01-10). "First Colombian With Nonterminal Illness Legally Dies via Euthanasia". Psychiatric Times. Retrieved 2024-04-21.
- ^ McCulloch, Craig (2024-02-09). "Canada Postpones Plan to Allow Euthanasia for Mentally Ill". Voice of America. Retrieved 2024-04-21.
- ^ Yasgur, Batya Swift (2023-08-03). "Clinicians Talking: Euthanasia for SMI -- Right or Wrong?". Medscape. Retrieved 2024-04-21.
- ^ Olié, Emilie; Courtet, Philippe (2016-08-09). "The Controversial Issue of Euthanasia in Patients With Psychiatric Illness". JAMA. 316 (6). American Medical Association (AMA): 656. doi:10.1001/jama.2016.9883. ISSN 0098-7484.
- ^ Lane, Charles (2016-10-19). "Europe's morality crisis: Euthanizing the mentally ill". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 2016-12-02. Retrieved 2024-04-21.
- ^ Nicolini, Marie E.; Jardas, EJ; Zarate, Carlos A.; Gastmans, Chris; Kim, Scott Y. H. (2022-10-28). "Irremediability in psychiatric euthanasia: examining the objective standard". Psychological Medicine. 53 (12). Cambridge University Press (CUP): 5729–5747. doi:10.1017/s0033291722002951. ISSN 0033-2917.
- ^ "Dying with dignity: The story of euthanasia in Belgium". The Bulletin. 2021-01-02. Retrieved 2024-04-21.
- ^ "it may have saved my life'". Sky News. 2020-08-24. Retrieved 2024-04-21.
- ^ Aviv, Rachel (2015-06-15). "Who Has the Right to Die?". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2024-04-21.
- ^ a b "'What could help me to die?' Doctors clash over euthanasia". STAT. 2017-10-26. Retrieved 2024-04-21.
- ^ a b Peltier, Elian (2020-01-31). "Belgium Acquits Three Doctors in Landmark Euthanasia Case". The New York Times. Retrieved 2024-04-21.
- ^ "'Dying With Dignity': Dutch Mark 20 Years of Euthanasia". Voice of America. 2022-04-01. Retrieved 2024-04-21.
- ^ "Death on Demand: Has Euthanasia Gone Too Far?". Pulitzer Center. 2019-01-18. Retrieved 2024-04-21.
- ^ "Dutch court approves euthanasia in cases of advanced dementia". the Guardian. 2020-04-21. Retrieved 2024-04-21.
- ^ a b Ferrer, Isabel (2024-04-19). "Debate ignites in the Netherlands over rise in euthanasia for mental disorders". EL PAÍS English. Retrieved 2024-04-21.