Exact(1)
Defined as an act of self-injury or self-poisoning with non-fatal outcomes regardless of the intention to die [ 7], self-harm is a construct differing from completed suicide in terms of the underlying intention of death, the combination of different methods and their lethality, and the prior degree of hopelessness, amongst other distinctions [ 8].
Similar(58)
Although the physicians in our study had the intention of hastening death and believed that death was the result of using these drugs, it is possible that some may have overestimated the actual life shortening effect of the drugs they administered.
In particular, we chose a two-step approach: a question on a treatment/decision (withholding, withdrawing a treatment, intensifying the alleviation of pain); and, for each decision made, its possible or certain effect on hastening death as well as the intention of hastening death, is investigated.
In a much smaller number of cases (3.1%), the death followed a decision made with the declared intention of hastening death.
According to the survey, published in the current Medical Journal of Australia, one in three general surgeons, a group that performs operations and provides general care, had, in terminal cases, given drugs in doses "greater than those required to relieve symptoms, with the intention of hastening death".
Dutch doctors also administer high-dose opioids with the explicit intention of causing death.
When a drug was administered with the intention of hastening death, the decision was discussed in 14, 10, 19 and 4 cases out of 24, respectively.
Euthanasia, ie administration of lethal drugs with the explicit intention of hastening death at the explicit request of the incurable patient, was decriminalised in Belgium in 2002 under strict legal terms [ 6].
VSED can be defined as an action by a competent, capacitated person, who voluntarily and deliberately chooses to stop eating and drinking with the primary intention of hastening death because of the persistence of unacceptable suffering.
A drug was administered with the explicit intention of hastening death – an act that can be considered as poisoning under French law – at the patient's explicit request in 0.2% of these deaths, and without a clear patient request in another 0.6%.
35 The fact that some of the physicians in our study indicated that their use of opioids, sedatives, or both had the explicit intention of hastening death, yet at the same time indicated they had not used a higher dose than necessary to alleviate pain and other symptoms, may be an indication of the confusion that can arise in these situations.
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