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Palliative Medicine
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Physician-assisted death: attitudes and practices of community pharmacists in East Flanders, Belgium

Johan Bilsen

Marc Bauwens

Jan Bernheim

End-of-life Care Research Group, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels

Robert Vander Stichele

Centre for Pharmacology, Heymans Institute, Ghent University, Ghent

Luc Deliens

End-of-Life Care Research Group, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels and Department of Public and Occupational Health and Institute for Research in Extramural Medicine, VU University Medical Centre, Amsterdam

This study investigates attitudes and practices of community pharmacists with respect to physician-assisted death. Between 15 February and 15 April 2002, we sent anonymous mail questionnaires to 660 community pharmacists in the eastern province of Flanders, Belgium. The response rate was 54% (n-359). Most of the pharmacists who responded felt that patients have the right to end their own life (73%), and that under certain conditions physicians may assist the patient in dying (euthanasia: 84%; physician-assisted suicide: 61%). Under the prevailing restrictive legislation, a quarter of the pharmacists were willing to dispense lethal drugs for euthanasia versus 86% if it were legalized, but only after being well informed by the physician. The respondents favour guidelines for pharmacists drafted by their own professional organizations (95%), and enforced by legislation (90%) to ensure careful end-of-life practice. Over the last two years, 7.3% of the responding pharmacists have received a medical prescription for lethal drugs and 6.4% have actually dispensed them. So we can conclude that community pharmacists in East Flanders were not adverse to physician-assisted death, but their cooperation in dispensing lethal drugs was conditional on clinical information about the specific case and on protection by laws and professional guidelines.

Key Words: attitude • ethics • euthanasia • inter-professional relations • lethal drugs • pharmacists

Palliative Medicine, Vol. 19, No. 2, 151-157 (2005)
DOI: 10.1191/0269216305pm993oa
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