Psychiatria pre prax 4/2024

Euthanasia – different points of view

The work defines basic concepts of active and passive euthanasia, assisted suicide, orthothanasia and dysthanasia and their relationship to palliative medicine. It attempts to summarize the basic medical and ethical arguments for and against euthanasia. It illustrates euthanasia at psychiatric patients using data from countries with the longest tradition of legal euthanasia, Netherlands and Belgium. 1% of people who died by euthanasia were diagnosed mental disorders. Depressive disorders were the most common, majority had a history of repeated suicide attempts and hospitalizations in psychiatric hospitals. The problem of euthanasia is also reflected in mass media and films. Authors describe their personal development of attitudes towards euthanasia.

Keywords: euthanasia, terminology, arguments for and againts, psychiatric disorders, mass media