Euthanasia and assisted death
Currently, a handful of jurisdictions around the world permit some form of assisted death.
In Belgium and the Netherlands, a person with "unbearable and hopeless suffering" from psychiatric conditions can receive euthanasia and assisted suicide (EAS). You can read about the experience in Belgium in this widely read New Yorker article. Elderly people who are "tired of life" with non-fatal "geriatric" conditions can also receive EAS in those countries.
In 2016, we published a study of a majority of Dutch psychiatric EAS cases (see below for link) reported between 2011 and early 2014. I've written a post explaining that study. Paul Appelbaum wrote an editorial on our paper. You can also read coverage of the study in the New York Times and in Reuters among other media outlets.
Since then we have studied a variety of topics in EAS, using both empirical methods and normative analysis.
Kim SYH. Canadian Medical Assistance in Dying and the Hegemony of Privilege. American Journal of Bioethics 2023;23(11):1-6. doi: 10.1080/15265161.2023.2264096
Kim SYH. What does true equality in assisted dying require? American Journal of Bioethics 2023;23(9):1-4.
Nyquist C, Cohen-Almagor R, Kim SYH. Expert Views on Medical Involvement in the Swiss Assisted Dying Practice: “We want to have our cake and eat it, too”? American Journal of Bioethics-Empirical Research. 2023:1-19.
Nicolini ME, Jardas E, Gastmans C, Zarate C, Kim SYH. Irremediability in Psychiatric Euthanasia: Examining the Objective Standard. Psychological Medicine. DOI: 10.1017/S0033291722002951
Berens N, Kim SYH. Reply to Commentary by Bostwick JM: The Importance of Studying Complex Policy Issues in Physician-Assisted Death. Journal of the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry 2022;63(5):516-17.
Berens, N., & Kim, S. Y. (2022). Rapid-Response Treatments for Depression and Requests for Physician-Assisted Death: An Ethical Analysis. The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. doi:10.1016/j.jagp.2022.07.003
(Here's a podcast on this article: https://www.ajgponline.org/amgp/audio# )
Kim SYH. The Unstable Boundary of Suffering-Based Euthanasia Regimes. The American Journal of Bioethics. 2022;22(2):59-62.
Berens N, Wasserman D, Wakim P, Bernhard T, Kim SYH. Resource Limitation and ‘Forced Irremediability’ in Physician-Assisted Death for Nonterminal Mental and Physical Conditions: A Survey of the US Public. Journal of the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry. 2022. [This paper received the 2023 Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Dorfman Journal Paper Award.]
Nicolini ME, Gastmans C, Kim SYH. Psychiatric euthanasia, suicide and the role of gender. The British Journal of Psychiatry. 2021:1-4.
Kim S. Ways of debating assisted suicide and euthanasia: implications for psychiatry. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine. 2021;64(1):29-43.
Kim SY, Mangino D, Nicolini M. Is this person with dementia (currently) competent to request euthanasia? A complicated and underexplored question. Journal of Medical Ethics. 2020
Mangino DR, Bernhard T, Wakim P, Kim SY. Assessing public's attitudes towards euthanasia and assisted suicide of persons with dementia based on their advance request: an experimental survey of US public. The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. 2020.
Mangino DR, Nicolini ME, De Vries RG, Kim SYH. Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide of Persons With Dementia in the Netherlands. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2020;28(4):466-477.
Nicolini ME, Kim SYH, Churchill ME, Gastmans C. Should euthanasia and assisted suicide for psychiatric disorders be permitted? A systematic review of reasons. Psychol Med. 2020;50(8):1241-1256.
Nicolini, M. E., Peteet, J. R., Donovan, G. K., & Kim, S. Y. H. Euthanasia and assisted suicide of persons with psychiatric disorders: the challenge of personality disorders. Psychol Med. 2020;50(4):575-582.
Lengvenyte A, Strumila R, Courtet P, Kim SYH, Olié E. “Nothing hurts less than being dead”. Psychological pain in case descriptions of psychiatric euthanasia and assisted suicide from the Netherlands. Canadian J Psychiatry. 2020. (e-pub ahead of print).
Kim SYH. Euthanasia Old and New: Lives Not Worth Living and Unequal Respect for Autonomy. In: Sulmasy DP and Rubenfeld, S. eds. Physician-assisted Suicide and Euthanasia after the Holocaust. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books; 2020: 247-260.
Kim SYH. Lives Not Worth Living in Modern Euthanasia Regimes. Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities. 2019;16(2):134-6.
Nicolini ME, Gastmans C, Kim SYH. Parity Arguments for ‘Physician Aid-in-Dying’ (PAD) for Psychiatric Disorders: Their Structure and Limits. The American Journal of Bioethics. 2019;19(10):3-7.
Kim, S. How Dutch Law Got a Little Too Comfortable With Euthanasia. The Atlantic. June 8, 2019.
Kim SYH, Conwell Y, Caine ED. Suicide and physician-assisted death for persons with psychiatric disorders: How much overlap? JAMA Psychiatry. 2018; 75(11):1099-1100.
Miller DG, Dresser R, Kim SYH. Advance euthanasia directives: a controversial case and its ethical implications. J Med Ethics. 2018.
Miller DG, Kim SYH. Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide not meeting due care criteria in the Netherlands: a qualitative review of review committee judgements. BMJ Open 2017;7:e017628. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-017628
Kim SYH. Capacity Assessments as a Safeguard for Psychiatric Patients Requesting Euthanasia Journal of Ethics in Mental Health 2016. Open Volume. (Invited commentary).
Doernberg SN, Peteet JR, Kim SYH. Capacity Evaluations of Psychiatric Patients Requesting Assisted Death in theNetherlands. Psychosomatics. 2016. DOI: 10.1016/j.psym.2016.06.005.
Kim, S. Y. H., & Lemmens, T. (2016). Should assisted dying for psychiatric disorders be legalized in Canada? Canadian Medical Association Journal. doi: 10.1503/cmaj.160365.
Kim SYH, De Vries RG, Peteet JR. Euthanasia and assisted suicide of patients with psychiatric disorders in the netherlands 2011 to 2014. JAMA Psychiatry. 2016. Online first.