A multidisciplinary perspective on physician-assisted dying in primary care in The Netherlands: A narrative interview study

Abstract

Most research on physician-assisted dying (PAD) in the Netherlands focuses on general practitioners (GPs). Less is known about the perspectives of other professionals. We performed narrative interviews with 10 professionals other than GPs to explore their perspectives on PAD in primary care. The results provide insight into PAD as an enacted practice involving many different actors, considerations, and expectations and into the intertwinement between PAD and palliative sedation. The study shows how a multidisciplinary perspective to PAD provides new avenues for practice, research, and ethics. It poses the question whether PAD can and should be considered merely a physicians’ concern.

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our thanks to all professionals who participated in this study. We especially would like to thank Margo Trappenburg for her support and feedback during the process of data-analysis and -interpretation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The data are not openly available for reasons of anonymity, confidentiality, and local data protection laws. Data are only available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request and if permission is granted by the data protection officer and ethics committee of the University of Humanistic Studies.