WEDNESDAY, May 9 (HealthDay News) -- The rates of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide have fallen in the Netherlands since euthanasia was legalized in 2002, possibly due to wider use of interventions such as palliative sedation, according to study findings published in the May 10 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Agnes van der Heide, M.D., Ph.D., from Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and colleagues examined the rates of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide in the Netherlands in 2005 by analyzing the results of questionnaires mailed to physicians. There were 5,342 completed responses. The rates were compared with data from 2001, before the Netherlands legalized euthanasia.
Euthanasia fell from 2.6 percent of all deaths in 2001 to 1.7 percent in 2005, while physician-assisted suicide also fell from 0.2 percent in 2001 to 0.1 percent in 2005. The researchers found that 0.4 percent of deaths occurred without an explicit request from the patient. The use of continuous deep sedation increased from 5.6 percent of deaths in 2001 to 7.1 percent in 2005. Neuromuscular relaxants or barbiturates were used in 73.9 percent of cases and opioids in 16.2 percent of cases.
"The Dutch Euthanasia Act was followed by a modest decrease in the rates of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide," the authors write. "The decrease may have resulted from the increased application of other end-of-life care interventions, such as palliative sedation."
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