[Life-terminating actions by family practitioners and nursing home physicians without the patient's request].

OBJECTIVE

To describe deliberate and active termination of life without the patient's request by general practitioners and Dutch 'nursing home' physicians.

DESIGN

Descriptive, retrospective investigation.

METHOD

Data were collected through anonymous postal questionnaires sent to a random sample of 521 general practitioners in North Holland and 521 general practitioners in the rest of the Netherlands regarding 1986-1989 and to all 713 Dutch 'nursing home' physicians affiliated to the Dutch Association of Nursing Home Physicians regarding 1986-June 1990.

RESULTS

65 General practitioners (10%) and 28 nursing home physicians (5%) had at any time deliberately terminated the life of a patient without explicit request by the patient, 94 and 70 times, respectively. In almost all cases the general practitioners indicated that the patients were suffering intensely; the nursing home physicians indicated this in 65% of the cases; with 66% and 57% of the patients contact was not possible; in 50% and in 65% of the cases, respectively, the family was involved in the decision to terminate the patient's life.

CONCLUSION

Termination of life without request by the patient occurs in the practices of Dutch general practitioners and Dutch 'nursing home' physicians, but is rare.