ArticleCurrent oncology (Toronto, Ont.)2011
Legalizing euthanasia or assisted suicide: the illusion of safeguards and controls.
Article in Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.), 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed, 129 citations in OpenAlex.
- Against the right to mutilation: an analogy ad absurdum.Monash bioethics review · 2026Article
- Review
- Life, death, and 280 characters: a hashtag analysis of #AssistedSuicide on X (2015-2025).Frontiers in digital health · 2026Article
- The Morality of Assisted Dying.The Journal of medicine and philosophy · 2025Article
- Awareness and attitudes toward euthanasia: A cross-sectional study among diverse demographic groups in India.Journal of family medicine and primary care · 2025Article
- Suicide Risk in Digestive Cancer Patients: A Systematic Review of Sociodemographic, Psychological, and Clinical Predictors.Cancers · 2025Review
- Knowledge and attitudes toward euthanasia among final year pharmacy and law students: a cross-sectional study.Journal of pharmaceutical policy and practice · 2023Article
- Attitudes on euthanasia among medical students and doctors in Sri Lanka: a cross sectional study.BMC medical ethics · 2021Article
- A step too far or a step in the wrong direction? A critique of the 2014 Amendment to the Belgian Euthanasia Act.Monash bioethics review · 2021Article
- Physician-Assisted Suicide in Dementia: Paradoxes, Pitfalls and the Need for Prudence.Frontiers in sociology · 2021Review
- Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide: a systematic review of medical students' attitudes in the last 10 years.Journal of medical ethics and history of medicine · 2020Article
- Article
- Euthanasia and assisted dying: what is the current position and what are the key arguments informing the debate?Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine · 2018Review
- End-of-life decision-making across cancer types: results from a nationwide retrospective survey among treating physicians.British journal of cancer · 2018Article
- Medical Assistance in Dying: Challenges for Psychiatry.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2018Article
- Palliative care professionals' willingness to perform euthanasia or physician assisted suicide.BMC palliative care · 2015Article
- Trust increases euthanasia acceptance: a multilevel analysis using the European Values Study.BMC medical ethics · 2014Article
- Questions and answers on the Belgian model of integral end-of-life care: experiment? Prototype? : "Eu-euthanasia": the close historical, and evidently synergistic, relationship between palliative care and euthanasia in Belgium: an interview with a doctor involved in the early development of both and two of his successors.Journal of bioethical inquiry · 2014Article
- Euthanasia: Murder or Not: A Comparative Approach.Iranian journal of public health · 2014Review
- Characteristics of Belgian "life-ending acts without explicit patient request": a large-scale death certificate survey revisited.CMAJ open · 2014Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Euthanasia or assisted suicide-and sometimes both-have been legalized in a small number of countries and states. In all jurisdictions, laws and safeguards were put in place to prevent abuse and misuse of these practices. Prevention measures have included, among others, explicit consent by the person requesting euthanasia, mandatory reporting of all cases, administration only by physicians (with the exception of Switzerland), and consultation by a second physician.The present paper provides evidence that these laws and safeguards are regularly ignored and transgressed in all the jurisdictions and that transgressions are not prosecuted. For example, about 900 people annually are administered lethal substances without having given explicit consent, and in one jurisdiction, almost 50% of cases of euthanasia are not reported. Increased tolerance of transgressions in societies with such laws represents a social "slippery slope," as do changes to the laws and criteria that followed legalization. Although the initial intent was to limit euthanasia and assisted suicide to a last-resort option for a very small number of terminally ill people, some jurisdictions now extend the practice to newborns, children, and people with dementia. A terminal illness is no longer a prerequisite. In the Netherlands, euthanasia for anyone over the age of 70 who is "tired of living" is now being considered. Legalizing euthanasia and assisted suicide therefore places many people at risk, affects the values of society over time, and does not provide controls and safeguards.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.