Based on a fifteen-month study of home deaths in the Netherlands,The Maintenance of Life examines the practice of euthanasiaand end-of-life care in a country that is often cited as a modelfor health reform. The study found that of the patients who”initiated a request for euthanasia” (which is legal in theNetherlands), a majority chose not to go through with it. Instead,the discussions among patients, families, and physicians “thatare the preconditions to qualifying for euthanasia” served a”palliative function” by giving these patients a way to reaffirmtheir “social bonds and self-identity at the end of life.”
Health Affairs, 29, no. 2 (2010): 330-331
doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2009.1104
