• Geert Pousset, Freddy Mortier, Johan Bilsen, Joachim Cohen, and Luc Deliens.
• Bioethics Institute Ghent, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium. geert.pousset@ugent.be
• Arch. Dis. Child. 2011 Oct 1;96(10):948-53.

ObjectiveTo 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.DesignAnonymous population-based postmortem physician survey.SettingFlanders, Belgium.ParticipantsPhysicians signing death certificates of all patients aged 1-17 years who died between June 2007 and November 2008.Main Outcome MeasuresAttitudes towards physician-assisted death in minors and actual end-of-life practices in the deaths concerned.Results124 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.ConclusionA 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.

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