@article{1001172,
  abstract     = {{Objective: To investigate attitudes towards physician-assisted death in minors among all physicians involved in the treatment of children dying in Flanders, Belgium over an 18-month period, and how these are related to actual medical end-of-life practices. 
Design: Anonymous population-based postmortem physician survey. 
Setting: Flanders, Belgium. 
Participants: Physicians signing death certificates of all patients aged 1-17 years who died between June 2007 and November 2008. 
Main outcome measures: Attitudes towards physician-assisted death in minors and actual end-of-life practices in the deaths concerned. 
Results: 124 physicians for 70.5% of eligible cases (N=149) responded. 69% favour an extension of the Belgian law on euthanasia to include minors, 26.6% think this should be done by establishing clear age limits and 61% think parental consent is required before taking life-shortening decisions. Cluster analysis yielded a cluster (67.7% of physicians) accepting of, and a cluster (32.2% of physicians) reluctant towards physician-assisted death in minors. Controlling for physician specialty and patient characteristics, acceptant physicians were more likely to engage in practices with the intention of shortening a patient's life than were reluctant physicians. 
Conclusion: A majority of surveyed Flemish physicians appear to accept physician-assisted dying in children under certain circumstances and favour an amendment to the euthanasia law to include minors. The approach favoured is one of assessing decision-making capacity rather than setting arbitrary age limits. These stances, and their connection with actual end-of-life practices, may encourage policy-makers to develop guidelines for medical end-of-life practices in minors that address specific challenges arising in this patient group.}},
  author       = {{Pousset, Geert and Mortier, Freddy and Bilsen, Johan and Cohen, Joachim and Deliens, Luc}},
  issn         = {{0003-9888}},
  journal      = {{ARCHIVES OF DISEASE IN CHILDHOOD}},
  keywords     = {{OF-LIFE DECISIONS,UNIT,FLANDERS,BELGIUM,COUNTRIES,SUICIDE,NETHERLANDS,PEDIATRIC INTENSIVE-CARE,END,EUTHANASIA LAW}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{10}},
  pages        = {{948--953}},
  title        = {{Attitudes and practices of physicians regarding physician-assisted dying in minors}},
  url          = {{http://doi.org/10.1136/adc.2009.171918}},
  volume       = {{96}},
  year         = {{2011}},
}

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