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HYPOTHESIS AND THEORY article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Rehabilitation
Volume 15 - 2024 |
doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1463813
Exploring the Interplay of Clinical, Ethical and Societal Dynamics: Two Decades of Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) on psychiatric grounds in the Netherlands and Belgium
Provisionally accepted- 1 Vrije University Brussels, Brussels, Belgium
- 2 University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
- 3 GGZ Oost Brabant, Boekel, Netherlands
- 4 University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
- 5 Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
- 6 AZ Groeninge, Kortrijk, Belgium
- 7 Amsterdam University Medical Center, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- 8 Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, Netherlands
Psychiatric Grounds (MAID-PG), focusing on ethical, clinical, and societal perspectives. Two themes are explored. First, the growing number of young MAID-PG requestors and the public platform given to MAID-PG requests. Ethically, media portrayal, particularly of young patients' testimonials, requires scrutiny for oversimplification, acknowledging the potential for a Werther effect alongside the absence of a Papageno effect. This highlights the need for better communication policies for media purposes. Second, cautionary considerations regarding psychiatric care adequacy are addressed. In MAID-PG this includes reasons underlying psychiatrist reluctance to engage in MAID-PG trajectories, leading to growing waiting lists at end-of-life-care centers. Addressing current shortages in psychiatric care adequacy is crucial, necessitating less narrow focus on short-term care trajectories and recovery beside transdiagnostic treatment approaches, expanded palliative care strategies, and integrated MAID-PG care.
Keywords: Euthanasia, Psychiatry, Assisted suicide, mental illness, End-of-life care
Received: 12 Jul 2024; Accepted: 23 Aug 2024.
Copyright: © 2024 Verhofstadt, Marijnissen, Creemers, Rasing, Schweren, Sterckx, Titeca, van Veen and Pronk. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Radboud Marijnissen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands
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