Pam Oliver Research and Evaluation, Waiheke Island, New Zealand.
Adelaide Medical and Health Sciences, University of Adelaide, SA, Australia.
Omega (Westport). 2024 Aug;89(3):1253-1272. doi: 10.1177/00302228221089120. Epub 2022 Apr 22.
Identifying the impacts of COVID-19 on patients' and practitioners' access to legal assisted dying and euthanasia (AD&E) services is vital to informing service continuity in an ongoing pandemic. An anonymous online survey collected qualitative and quantitative data from health practitioners and agencies providing legal AD&E services ( = 89), complemented by semi-structured interviews with 18 survey respondents who volunteered. Following governments' responses to the dynamic pandemic context, rates of AD&E inquiries and requests fluctuated across and within jurisdictions, based on a complex interaction of factors affecting patient access to AD&E agencies and assessors as services were disrupted. Service flexibility and nimbleness became key elements in continuing service availability and included calculated 'rule-breaking' considered justifiable to adhere to established bioethics. Making innovative adjustments to usual practice led to reviewing the effectiveness of AD&E services and laws, resulting in providers now improving services and lobbying for legislative change.
确定 COVID-19 对患者和从业者获得合法协助死亡和安乐死 (AD&E) 服务的影响对于在持续大流行期间告知服务连续性至关重要。一项匿名在线调查从提供合法 AD&E 服务的卫生从业者和机构（=89）收集了定性和定量数据，并辅以对 18 名自愿参加调查的受访者的半结构化访谈。在各国政府对动态大流行情况作出回应后，AD&E 查询和请求的数量在各管辖区内和之间波动，这是由于影响患者获得 AD&E 机构和评估者的因素的复杂相互作用所致，因为服务受到了干扰。服务的灵活性和敏捷性成为继续提供服务的关键因素，包括被认为符合既定生物伦理学的“故意违规”。对通常做法进行创新调整导致审查 AD&E 服务和法律的有效性，从而促使提供者改进服务并游说立法改革。
