End of life medical decision making: Evaluation of the differences between terminally ill cancer patients who died after euthanasia had been performed and terminally ill cancer patients who did not request euthanasia

Objectives - To evaluate the possible determinants of euthanasia and assisted suicide, presenting data on symptoms and their treatment, and end-of-life care in two groups of patients, i.e those who request euthanasia and those who did not request euthanasia. Design - Qualitative methods with interviews. Setting - Department of Public and Occupational Health. VU Medical Centre, Amsterdam and University of Medical Centre, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Method - Data on terminally ill cancer patients who died after their request was granted and euthanasia had been performed were compared with those of terminally ill cancer patients who did not request euthanasia. Results - The results show that the prevalence and severity of symptoms e.g., pain, feeling unwell, nausea, was higher in patients who died after their request was granted and euthanasia had been performed. No differences concerning the treatment of symptoms or the care provided were found between the two groups. Conclusion - The results suggest that the practice of euthanasia is mainly related to the patient's suffering.