Euthanasia: Assisted suicide

Definition

Luxembourg's Law of 16 March 2009 on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide defines euthanasia as a medical act whereby a physician intentionally ends the life of another person, at that person's express and freely given request to do so.

Assisted suicide consists of helping another person to end their own life – in particular by providing them with the means of doing so.

The aim is to bring death, or assist in delivering death, to a person suffering from an incurable illness, to cut short their suffering and agony.

Asking for euthanasia or assisted suicide

For a request for euthanasia or assisted suicide to be considered legal in Luxembourg, the following conditions must be met:

• The patient must be conscious at the time of the request.
• They must be an adult, able to fully understand their circumstances and what they are asking for: that is, they must not have been ruled incapable of making their own decisions by a court.
• The decision must have been made without any outside pressure.
• They must have an incurable medical condition, with no prospect of improvement, arising as a result of an accident or illness, and the situation must be impossible to rectify according to current scientific knowledge.
• They must be suffering, physically or psychologically, as a result of their state of health.
• The request must be formulated in writing, bearing their details, and be dated and signed.
• Patients may withdraw their request for euthanasia or assisted suicide at any time. In that case, it will be taken out of their medical file and returned to the patient.

End-of-life arrangements

'End-of-life arrangements' are a euthanasia request made in advance, in anticipation of the possibility that the patient could, at some later point in their life, find themselves in an irreversible state of unconsciousness – irreversible from the point of view of scientific knowledge at the time – or suffer from the incurable effects of a serious accident or illness.

Patients may, at any time, express their wishes in relation to their care, including their wish for euthanasia or assisted suicide.

End-of-life arrangements allow patients to set down, in writing, the circumstances and conditions in which they wish to receive euthanasia. The patient's wishes must be expressed in writing, dated and signed by the patient themselves.

The request must be filed with the National Control and Assessment Committee (Commission nationale de contrôle et d'évaluation).

Forms

In the 'Find out more' box below, there are various forms on which to record end-of-life arrangements. These forms are available in three languages:

• French,
• German,
• and English.

Procedure for physicians to follow

Upon receiving your request for assisted dying, the doctor must:

• inform you as to your state of health and life expectancy, discuss the treatment options which might still be considered, and set out the possibilities offered by palliative care;
• record the substance of those conversations in your medical file, in order to comply with the request;
• conduct multiple interviews with you to ensure that the wish is genuine and deep-seated rather than fleeting, and confirm that you are indeed suffering physically and psychologically as a result of your situation;
• ask a colleague for their opinion on your condition or your medical situation in the wake of an accident, to confirm that it is both serious and incurable;
• unless you specifically object, discuss your request with the team of caregivers;
• unless you specifically object, discuss your request with your chosen person of trust;
• ensure that you have been able to talk to anyone whom you wish to connect with prior to your death;
• ask the National Control and Assessment Committee about your recorded end-of-life arrangements.

Obligations incumbent on the physician

If a doctor carries out euthanasia or assists a suicide, they must, within 8 days, submit a registration form to the National Control and Assessment Committee, verifying that the prescribed conditions and procedure were adhered to.

National Control and Assessment Committee

Under the Law of 16 March 2009 on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, the National Control and Assessment Committee is in charge of overseeing the proper application of that law on euthanasia.

It draws up the registration forms that physicians must fill in each time they carry out euthanasia, in order to assess and verify whether that euthanasia was carried out in keeping with the conditions and procedure defined by the law.

In addition, every two years, the National Control and Assessment Committee reports to the Chamber of Deputies on the application of the law. Where necessary, the Committee may make recommendations.

Finally, the National Control and Assessment Committee systematically records all end-of-life arrangements set out during a patient's lifetime. The Committee will inform the physician caring for a patient as to whether their end-of-life arrangements have been filed, and if so, will grant the physician access to those records.