Euthanasia and other end-of-life decisions: a mortality follow-back study in Belgium

BMC Public Health

Table 4 Discussion with patient of end-of-life decisions in Belgium, according to community

		Dutch-speaking	French-speaking	Total for Belgium
Number of deaths studied ^a		412	191	603
Discussion with patient ^b		%	%	%
Administering life-ending drugs without explicit patient request	Discussed	37.5	33.3	36.0
	Not discussed	62.5	66.7	64.0
	Patient non-competent	100.0	83.3	93.8
Intensified alleviation of symptoms	Discussed	30.8	23.3	28.5
	Explicit request	38.6	25.0	35.1
	Not discussed	69.2	76.7	71.5
	Patient non-competent	67.7	67.5	67.7
Withholding or withdrawing of life-prolonging treatment	Discussed	39.9	39.7	39.8
	Explicit request	42.6	41.4	42.2
	Not discussed	60.1	60.3	60.2
	Patient non-competent	88.0	81.8	86.0
Total	Discussed	37.1	32.5	35.7
	Explicit request	45.1	38.7	43.3
	Not discussed	62.9	67.5	64.3
	Patient non-competent	76.3	73.2	75.3

^a Missing values for discussion with patient: for all ELDs n = 166 (21%) (93 Dutch and 73 French-speaking) i.e. for administering life-ending drugs without explicit patient request n = 1, for intensified alleviation of symptoms n = 125, for withholding or withdrawing of life-prolonging treatment n = 40.
^b p > .05 for all characteristics (Fishers' Exact test)

ISSN: 1471-2458