Euthanasia numbers have fallen since legalization, likely due to better care, survey says

The number of euthanasia cases is falling sharply in the Netherlands, where mercy killings were legalized six years ago, and terminally ill patients are increasingly choosing to be sedated until they die a natural death, a government-funded report said Thursday.

A survey presented to Deputy Health Minister Jet Bussemaker said the number of euthanasia cases in 2005 fell to 2,325 from 3,500 in 2001, when the euthanasia law was passed. Assisted suicides dropped to 100 from 300, she said.

The percentage of all deaths by euthanasia dropped to 1.7 percent, compared with 2.6 percent in 2001, Bussemaker said.

A majority of doctors said the decrease was clearly linked to better care for the terminally ill in the Netherlands, she said.

One of the report's authors, Hans van Delden from Utrecht's University Medical Center, told reporters that for some people sedation was preferable to euthanasia, "which is mostly a death by syringe."

The report also praised the new euthanasia law as a success, particularly citing the rising number of doctors who report euthanasia cases.

"The most important finding of the research, I think, is that 80 percent of euthanasia cases are now being reported," said Bussemaker, who called it a pleasing improvement from six years ago when only 54 percent of cases were reported.

The Dutch doctor's lobby group, the Royal Netherlands Society for Health Promotion, also welcomed the finding.

"This contributes to one of the important goals of the euthanasia law _ improving transparency," the group said in a statement. "Doctors have shown they are open to scrutiny."

The euthanasia survey was the fourth carried out since 1990, but the first since the country passed a law in 2001 legalizing euthanasia under strict guidelines.

Research for the survey by staff from four respected teaching hospitals and the government's Central Bureau for Statistics included studying reports of euthanasia cases, interviewing doctors and coroners, and checking death records.

The new law sought to strictly regulate a practice that was already widespread and for years had been broadly tolerated by medical authorities. Nevertheless, it drew sharp criticism from the Vatican and right-to-life groups around the world.

There have been no prosecutions of doctors for evading the new law, which allows euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide for terminal patients suffering unbearable pain with no hope of improvement, and who request death when they are of sound mind.

While welcoming the report's findings, the Health Ministry said the new center-right government, which is dominated by two Christian-values parties, would not formulate an official reaction until after parliament's summer break. However, the government pledged when it came into office in February not to make any substantial changes to the law.