Euthanasia families ‘suffer less grief’
A Dutch study has found that families of people who die of euthanasia suffer less from grief and stress than those whose relatives died naturally.
In the Netherlands, where euthanasia is legal, it is believed that the opportunity to say goodbye and having time to prepare for the death helps friends and relatives to cope better.
The study looked the experience of 189 families whose relatives died of a result of euthanasia because they were suffering from terminal cancer. They compared this to the experience of 316 families whose relations died naturally. The researchers found that symptoms of grief, post-traumatic stress and depression were less traumatic when the relative died of euthanasia.
Dr Nikkie Swarte, of the University Medical Centre in Utrecht, reported in the British Medical Journal that cancer patients who do not opt for euthanasia may be in denial and their families may have colluded in this denial, making it harder to grieve afterwards.
‘There is a need for open awareness of impending death and for careful and thoughtful planning of where and how the death ought to occur,’ he explained.
However the researchers have been quick to add that this is not a plea for euthanasia but a call for the same care and openness in all terminally ill patients.
Up to 3,200 patients die by euthanasia in the Netherlands every year.
