End of life

To develop this proposal, the Amfora association organises training courses for palliative care networks, care for the elderly and institutions for the disabled, to help them conduct and develop end-of-life interviews. Amfora also works with the Samana association, to train their volunteers to work with people at the end of their lives. These interviews are an original and creative way of developing the fourth pillar of palliative care, which aims to meet patients' spiritual and existential...

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In 2022, this same professor said: "Euthanasia is not the right word, because the law on euthanasia does not apply here. [Euthanasia] is based on the capacity to give consent, which the patient can request for his or her own end of life. These children are not always capable of doing so. Active interruption of life is the right term". Beyond the impossibility for these children to consent to such a serious and irreversible act, the major ethical concern remains the fact of considering...

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This case of Mortier v. Belgium, named after the applicant, the son of the euthanized person, was the first case in which the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) was called upon to assess the compatibility of euthanasiaalready practiced with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Tom Mortier alleged a violation of his mother's right to life, protected by Article 2 of the Convention, and of his right to respect for his private and family life, protected by Article 8 of the...

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As a reminder, the law passed in 2020 first provides that 'no written or unwritten clause can prevent a doctor from performing euthanasia'. This provision aims to de facto prohibit retirement homes or hospitals whose care project excludes the fact of ending the life of their residents or patients by euthanasia, and which favor accompaniment through palliative care. The applicant citizens, as well as the European Institute of Bioethics, the intervener in the action, considered that such a...

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In terms of the physician's intentions, the study distinguishes three situations. In the first scenario, the physician does not intend to cause or hasten the baby's death, but considers the potential effect of hastening death (e.g., decision not to administer antibiotics, administration of morphine or sedatives). The second scenario consists in the situation where the potential effect of hastening death is not the primary goal but is partly aimed at by the physician. The third scenario is that...

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The law recognizes a new right, the right to euthanasia, which, according to the law, consists in the death of a person caused in a direct and intentional manner after the informed, explicit, and repeated request of that person, in a context of suffering caused by an incurable illness and which is conceived by the person as intolerable. The text of the law tries to ground this new right on other constitutional rights, such as the right to life, the right to physical integrity, the right to hum...

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The 2020 Belgium euthanasia data states that 57 people died by euthanasia based on psychiatric disorders and 48 people died by euthanasia based on cognitive disorders (dementia syndromes). Of the 57 deaths based on psychiatric disorders, 17 people had mood disorders (depression, bipolar, ...); 26 people had personality and behavioural disorders (compared to 13 for the previous period); 4 people had neurotic disorders, disorders linked to stressors and 6 somatoform disorders; 7 people had...

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In October 2019, the World Medical Association1 (WMA) adopted a declaration on euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. This new declaration is an opportunity to analyze the documents successively adopted by the WMA on euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide in recent years, and to identify possible evolutions in this area. This Expert Flash reviews each of the relevant documents, and compares the terms used and positions adopted. It emerges that, while terms slightly vary, WMA's position...

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A study conducted in Switzerland in December 2007 among 85 family members and friends who were present at an assisted suicide showed higher prevalence of PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) and complicated grief after witnessing assisted suicide than following a natural death. Switzerland is one of the few nations in which assisted suicide is legal. It is generally defined as the prescribing or supplying of drugs with the explicit intention of enabling the patient to end his or her own...

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The senior population in the United States is growing, and as such, so is the number of cases of dementia. When a person has dementia, they experience the progressive impairment of cognitive facilities, including memory, problem solving and language. There is no cure yet for dementia and there is no effective way to halt its progression. As the condition progresses, the affected person requires daily assistance and eventually total care. Because dementia causes a loss of many cognitive...

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