When is hastened death considered suicide? A systematically conducted literature review about palliative care professionals' experiences where assisted dying is legal.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Laws allowing assisted suicide and euthanasia have been implemented in many locations around the world but some individuals suffering with terminal illness receiving palliative care services are hastening death or die by suicide without assistance. This systematic review aims to summarise evidence of palliative care professionals' experiences of patients who died by suicide or hastened death in areas where assisted dying is legal and to understand when hastened death is considered to be a suicide.

Methods

AMED, CINAHL Complete, PsycINFO, PubMED, and Academic Search Ultimate were searched for articles from inception through June 2018. Quality assessment used the Hawker framework.

Results

A total of 1518 titles were screened resulting in thirty studies meetin

SUBMITTER: Gerson SM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6717643 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature