Patients Who Seek to Hasten Death by Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking: A Qualitative Study.

Purpose: Voluntary stopping of eating and drinking (VSED) is a controversial method to hasten death. Little is known about why and how people come to VSED. This study assessed patients' motives, how patients decide on VSED, and the ways in which they prepare for VSED and involve others.

Clinicians' experiences with cancer patients living longer with incurable cancer: a focus group study in the Netherlands.

Aim: To explore (1) experiences of primary care physicians (PCPs) and oncological medical specialists about providing care to patients living longer with incurable cancer, and (2) their preferences concerning different care approaches (palliative support, psychological/survivorship care support).

Background: At present, oncological medical specialists as well as PCPs are exploring how to improve and better tailor care to patients living longer with incurable cancer. Our previous study at the in-patient oncology unit showed that patients living longer with incurable cancer experience problems in how to deal with a prognosis that is insecure and fluctuating.

Appropriate and inappropriate care in the last phase of life: an explorative study among patients and relatives.

Background: Many people are in need of care in the last phase of life. However, the care they receive is not always appropriate. For instance, people can receive overly aggressive treatment or can have limited access to palliative care.

Physician-assisted dying for children is conceivable for most Dutch paediatricians, irrespective of the patient's age or competence to decide.

Aim: Paediatricians caring for severely ill children may receive requests for physician-assisted dying (PAD). Dutch euthanasia law only applies to patients over 12 who make well-considered requests. These limitations have been widely debated, but little is known about paediatricians' positions on PAD.

From Advance Euthanasia Directive to Euthanasia: Stable Preference in Older People?

Objectives: To determine whether older people with advance directive for euthanasia (ADEs) are stable in their advance desire for euthanasia in the last years of life, how frequently older people with an ADE eventually request euthanasia, and what factors determine this.

Design: Mortality follow-back study nested in a cohort study.

Setting: The Netherlands.

Primary care patients hastening death by voluntarily stopping eating and drinking.

Purpose: Little is known about the role family physicians play when a patient deliberately hastens death by voluntarily stopping eating and drinking (VSED). The purpose of this study was to gain more insight for family physicians when confronted with patients who wish to hasten death by VSED. We aimed to describe physicians' involvement in VSED, to describe characteristics and motives of their patients, and to describe the process of VSED in terms of duration, as well as common symptoms in the last 3 days of life.

Reducing questionnaire length did not improve physician response rate: a randomized trial.

Objectives: To examine the effect of reducing questionnaire length on the response rate in a physician survey.

Study Design And Setting: A postal four double-page questionnaire on end-of-life decision making was sent to a random sample of 1,100 general practitioners, 400 elderly care physicians, and 500 medical specialists. Another random sample of 500 medical specialists received a shorter questionnaire of two double pages.