IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v75y2012i5p845-853.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Cultural differences affecting euthanasia practice in Belgium: One law but different attitudes and practices in Flanders and Wallonia

Author

Listed:
  • Cohen, Joachim
  • Van Wesemael, Yanna
  • Smets, Tinne
  • Bilsen, Johan
  • Deliens, Luc

Abstract

Since 2002, Belgium has had a national law legalising euthanasia. The law prescribes several substantive due care requirements and two procedural due care requirements, i.e. consultation with an independent physician and reporting of euthanasia to a Federal Control Committee. A large discrepancy in reporting rates between the Dutch-speaking (Flanders) and the French-speaking (Wallonia) parts of Belgium has led to speculation about cultural differences affecting the practice of euthanasia in both regions. Using Belgian data from the European Values Study conducted in 2008 among a representative sample of the general public and data from a large-scale mail questionnaire survey on euthanasia of 480 physicians from Flanders and 305 from Wallonia (conducted in 2009), this study presents empirical evidence of differences between both regions in attitudes towards and practice of euthanasia. Acceptance of euthanasia by the general population was found to be slightly higher in Flanders than in Wallonia. Compared with their Flemish counterparts, Walloon physicians held more negative attitudes towards performing euthanasia and towards the reporting obligation, less often labelled hypothetical cases correctly as euthanasia, and less often defined a case of euthanasia having to be reported. A higher proportion of Flemish physicians had received a euthanasia request since the introduction of the law. In cases of a euthanasia request, Walloon physicians consulted less often with an independent physician. Requests were more often granted in Flanders than in Wallonia (51% vs 38%), and performed euthanasia cases were more often reported (73% vs 58%). The study points out some significant differences between Flanders and Wallonia in practice, knowledge and attitudes regarding euthanasia and its legal requirements which are likely to explain the discrepancy between Wallonia and Flanders in the number of euthanasia cases reported. Cultural factors seem to play an important role in the practice of (legal) euthanasia and the extent to which legal safeguards are followed.

Suggested Citation

  • Cohen, Joachim & Van Wesemael, Yanna & Smets, Tinne & Bilsen, Johan & Deliens, Luc, 2012. "Cultural differences affecting euthanasia practice in Belgium: One law but different attitudes and practices in Flanders and Wallonia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(5), pages 845-853.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:75:y:2012:i:5:p:845-853
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2012.04.021
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953612003772
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2012.04.021?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Miccinesi, Guido & Fischer, Susanne & Paci, Eugenio & Onwuteaka-Philipsen, Bregje D & Cartwright, Colleen & van der Heide, Agnes & Nilstun, Tore & Norup, Michael & Mortier, Freddy, 2005. "Physicians' attitudes towards end-of-life decisions: a comparison between seven countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(9), pages 1961-1974, May.
    2. Cohen, Joachim & Marcoux, Isabelle & Bilsen, Johan & Deboosere, Patrick & van der Wal, Gerrit & Deliens, Luc, 2006. "European public acceptance of euthanasia: Socio-demographic and cultural factors associated with the acceptance of euthanasia in 33 European countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(3), pages 743-756, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Damon Proulx & David A. Savage, 2020. "What Determines End-of-Life Attitudes? Revisiting the Dutch Experience," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 152(3), pages 1085-1125, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sinclair, Craig & Smith, Jessica & Toussaint, Yann & Auret, Kirsten, 2014. "Discussing dying in the diaspora: Attitudes towards advance care planning among first generation Dutch and Italian migrants in rural Australia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 86-93.
    2. Erwin Stolz & Nathalie Burkert & Franziska Großschädl & Éva Rásky & Willibald J Stronegger & Wolfgang Freidl, 2015. "Determinants of Public Attitudes towards Euthanasia in Adults and Physician-Assisted Death in Neonates in Austria: A National Survey," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(4), pages 1-15, April.
    3. Eliason, M. & Ohlsson, H., 2013. "Timing of death and the repeal of the Swedish inheritance tax," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 113-123.
    4. Elia Fernández-Martínez & Juan José Fernández-Muñoz & Cristina Romero-Blanco & María Laura Parra-Fernández & María Dolores Onieva-Zafra, 2020. "Spanish Version of the Attitude Towards Euthanasia Scale," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(11), pages 1-8, May.
    5. Tran Kiem Hao & Nguyen Huu Son, 2018. "Mortality Pattern at Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Of Hue Central Hospital, Vietnam," Biomedical Journal of Scientific & Technical Research, Biomedical Research Network+, LLC, vol. 11(5), pages 8750-8753, December.
    6. Lemiengre, Joke & de Casterle, Bernadette Dierckx & Van Craen, Katleen & Schotsmans, Paul & Gastmans, Chris, 2007. "Institutional ethics policies on medical end-of-life decisions: A literature review," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(2-3), pages 131-143, October.
    7. Lemiengre, Joke & Casterle, Bernadette Dierckx de & Verbeke, Geert & Guisson, Catherine & Schotsmans, Paul & Gastmans, Chris, 2007. "Ethics policies on euthanasia in hospitals--A survey in Flanders (Belgium)," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(2-3), pages 170-180, December.
    8. Maksim Rudnev & Aleksandra Savelkaeva, 2016. "Public Support for the Right to Euthanasia: The Competing Roles of Values and Religiosity Across 35 Nations," HSE Working papers WP BRP 59/PSY/2016, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    9. Seale, Clive, 2009. "Hastening death in end-of-life care: A survey of doctors," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(11), pages 1659-1666, December.
    10. Lemiengre, Joke & Dierckx de Casterlé, Bernadette & Verbeke, Geert & Van Craen, Katleen & Schotsmans, Paul & Gastmans, Chris, 2008. "Ethics policies on euthanasia in nursing homes: A survey in Flanders, Belgium," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(2), pages 376-386, January.
    11. Eliott, Jaklin A. & Olver, Ian N., 2008. "Dying cancer patients talk about euthanasia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(4), pages 647-656, August.
    12. Sarah Vilpert & Carmen Borrat-Besson & Gian Domenico Borasio & Jürgen Maurer, 2020. "Associations of end-of-life preferences and trust in institutions with public support for assisted suicide evidence from nationally representative survey data of older adults in Switzerland," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(4), pages 1-18, April.
    13. Damon Proulx & David A. Savage, 2020. "What Determines End-of-Life Attitudes? Revisiting the Dutch Experience," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 152(3), pages 1085-1125, December.
    14. Van Wesemael, Yanna & Cohen, Joachim & Bilsen, Johan & Smets, Tinne & Onwuteaka-Philipsen, Bregje & Distelmans, Wim & Deliens, Luc, 2012. "Implementation of a service for physicians’ consultation and information in euthanasia requests in Belgium," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 104(3), pages 272-278.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:75:y:2012:i:5:p:845-853. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.