Medical End-of-Life Practices under the Euthanasia Law in Belgium

To the Editor: The legalization of physician-assisted death for terminally ill patients is a controversial medical and societal issue.¹ In Belgium, where euthanasia was legalized in 2002, we conducted a follow-up study in 2007 to two large-scale nationwide surveys on medical end-of-life practices that had been conducted in 1998² and 2001.³ This follow-up study enabled us to investigate differences in the frequency and characteristics of these practices before and after the enactment of the law.We conducted the study with the use of data from death certificates in the Flemish-speaking part of Belgium, which has approximately 6 million inhabitants. A . . .