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Abstract

Physician-assisted death is becoming legal in an increasing number of jurisdictions, but psychiatric patients are often explicitly excluded. However, in some countries, including the Netherlands, physician-assisted death of psychiatric patients is allowed. This Open Forum describes a patient with schizophrenia and symptoms diagnosed as refractory musical hallucinations. The patient requested assistance in dying only to recover after a mandatory second opinion, where his complaints were recognized as intrusive thoughts and treated accordingly. This case is used to reflect on how to deal with uncertainty about physician-assisted death of psychiatric patients and to argue for implementation of a due-diligence procedure, such as the one proposed in the Dutch Psychiatric Association’s recent guideline concerning this issue.

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Information

Published In

Go to Psychiatric Services
Go to Psychiatric Services
Psychiatric Services
Pages: 621 - 623
PubMed: 32041511

History

Received: 2 October 2019
Revision received: 25 November 2019
Accepted: 12 December 2019
Published online: 11 February 2020
Published in print: June 01, 2020

Keywords

  1. ethics
  2. law
  3. physician-assisted death
  4. psychiatry

Authors

Details

S. M. P. van Veen, M.D. [email protected]
Department of Psychiatry (van Veen, Röder, Batalla) and Faculty of Medicine (Scheurleer, Ruijsch), University Medical Center Utrecht Brain Center, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands; Department of Medical Humanities, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam (van Veen, Widdershoven).
W. F. J. Scheurleer
Department of Psychiatry (van Veen, Röder, Batalla) and Faculty of Medicine (Scheurleer, Ruijsch), University Medical Center Utrecht Brain Center, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands; Department of Medical Humanities, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam (van Veen, Widdershoven).
M. L. Ruijsch
Department of Psychiatry (van Veen, Röder, Batalla) and Faculty of Medicine (Scheurleer, Ruijsch), University Medical Center Utrecht Brain Center, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands; Department of Medical Humanities, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam (van Veen, Widdershoven).
C. H. Röder, M.D., Ph.D.
Department of Psychiatry (van Veen, Röder, Batalla) and Faculty of Medicine (Scheurleer, Ruijsch), University Medical Center Utrecht Brain Center, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands; Department of Medical Humanities, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam (van Veen, Widdershoven).
G. A. M. Widdershoven, Ph.D.
Department of Psychiatry (van Veen, Röder, Batalla) and Faculty of Medicine (Scheurleer, Ruijsch), University Medical Center Utrecht Brain Center, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands; Department of Medical Humanities, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam (van Veen, Widdershoven).
A. Batalla, M.D., Ph.D.
Department of Psychiatry (van Veen, Röder, Batalla) and Faculty of Medicine (Scheurleer, Ruijsch), University Medical Center Utrecht Brain Center, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands; Department of Medical Humanities, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam (van Veen, Widdershoven).

Notes

Send correspondence to Dr. van Veen ([email protected]).

Competing Interests

Dr. van Veen and Dr. Scheurleer contributed equally to this Open Forum.

Competing Interests

The authors report no financial relationships with commercial interests.

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