[The role of the physician in requests for physician-assisted suicide in patients who are 'suffering from life': the Dijkhuis Report commissioned by the Royal Dutch Medical Association]

Abstract

In the Brongersma case, physician-assisted suicide was carried out in an 86-year-old man who was tired of life. The Dutch Supreme Court ruled that physician-assisted suicide may not be carried out if the suffering of the patient is not mainly determined by a medically classifiable disease. The Royal Dutch Medical Association set up a commission headed by J.Dijkhuis to advise them on determining their position in similar cases. This commission proposed a broader medical domain than had been determined by the Supreme Court. The commission was of the opinion that each physician should be able to manage requests for physician-assisted suicide from patients who are 'suffering from life' in terms of treatment that could influence the situation of the patient or his or her experience of it. If the patient continues to request physician-assisted suicide in spite of this, physicians are free to set their own individual limits which may be stricter than those set by the medical profession nationally. It is necessary to acquire scientifically underpinned knowledge of how to manage requests from patients who are 'suffering from life'.