Dutch Regional Euthanasia Review Committees: 2003 Annual Report.

Official annual report on the practice of euthanasia and assisted suicide in The Netherlands in 2003.

This is the annual report for 2003 of the five regional euthanasia review committees in The Netherlands on the working of that country’s 2002 ‘Termination of Life on Request and Assisted Suicide (Review Procedures) Act’.

The report provides details of the number of reported cases of voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide; the nature of the cases; the committees’ findings; and the considerations on which these were based.  2003 was the first complete calendar year following the entry into force of the Act on 1 April 2002.  The report showed a small reduction in the number of reported cases of euthanasia or assisted suicide.

This trend of small reductions alternating with small increases continued for the next three years.  The 2007 report shows a 10 per cent increase and the reports for 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 have shown a steep upward trend to the point where in 2011 the number of reported cases was almost double the number in 2002.

LDW-Research-NL-2003-Report

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