Legislation and ethics of physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia in psychiatric patients

Euthanasia is the act by which a third party (a physician or qualified healthcare practitioner) intentionally terminated a patient’s life by the patient’s request—the doctor administers the prescription. Physician-assisted suicide is where a physician or healthcare practitioner provide the means to a patient under the patient’s request, which will intentionally terminate the patient’s life—the individual then self-administers the prescription. Assisted suicide is where a physician or a healthcare practitioner is not directly involved and usually another third member or organization would assist in providing the patient with the means for self-administered suicide. This text presents the available data from the Benelux region on euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide requests that are grounded in psychiatric disorders. From a psychiatrist’s point of view, clinical and ethical questions are raised by such practices, since suicide prevention is a primary purpose of psychiatric care and a key focus of training.