Administer drug with the explicit purpose to hasten a patient’s death

A doctor prescribes, supplies or administers a drug with the deliberate intention of hastening a patient’s death. A distinction is made between euthanasia, assistance with suicide and life-ending actions without the patient’s explicit request.

Euthanasia
Euthanasia refers to the practice of intentionally ending a human life in order to relieve pain and suffering at the explicit request of a person other than the patient at their request.
(State Commission Euthanasia, 1985). The term euthanasia applies, if the doctor states that:

• the patient’s death is the result of the intake of a drug prescribed, supplied or administered by the doctor or a colleague with the intention of hastening the patient’s death, and
• the patient has not taken or administered the drug him/herself, and
• the decision was made at the patient’s explicit request.

Assistance with suicide
Assistance with suicide is defined as a deliberate action to end a patient’s life at their request. The doctor states that:

• the patient’s death is the result of the intake of a drug prescribed, supplied or administered by the doctor or a colleague with the intention of hastening the patient’s death, and
• the patient – and nobody else – has taken or administered the drug.

Life-ending actions without the patient’s explicit request
A life-ending action without the patient’s explicit request means that the doctor states that:

• the patient’s death is the result of the intake of a drug prescribed, supplied or administered by the doctor or a colleague with the intention of hastening the patient’s death, and
• there is an indication that the decision was not made at the patient’s explicit request.