Consulting a Trained Physician When Considering a Request for Euthanasia: An Evaluation of the Process in Flanders and The Netherlands

Abstract

In Belgium and the Netherlands, consultation of a second independent physician by the attending physician is mandatory in euthanasia cases. In both countries, specialized consultation services have been established to provide physicians trained for that purpose. This retrospective study describes and compares the quality of consultation of both services based on surveys of attending physicians and those providing the consultation (consultants). While Dutch consultants discussed certain subjects, for example, alternative curative or palliative treatment more often with the attending physician than Belgian consultants, both usually discussed those subjects considered necessary for a quality consultation and were independent from patient and attending physician. Over 90% of attending physicians in both countries evaluated the consultant’s knowledge of palliative care, patient’s disease, and judicial procedure, and their communication skills, as sufficient. Consultation with specialized consultation services seems to promote quality of euthanasia consultations.