| Oregon—PAS patients 1998–2006 | Netherlands*— PAS/euthanasia patients 2005 (n = 2400) | |||||||
| Potentially vulnerable group | Characteristic | No. (%) | Rate ratio | Characteristic | No. (%) | Rate ratio | ||
| Findings based on direct data | ||||||||
| The elderly (age in years) | 18–44 | 11 (4) | 3.4 | 0–64 | 900 (38) | 1.7 | ||
| 45–64 | 83 (28) | 3.2 | 65–79 | 950 (39) | 1.7 | |||
| 65–84 | 170 (58) | 2.3 | 80+ | 550 (23) | 1.0 | |||
| 85 + | 28 (10) | 1.0 | ||||||
| Median 70 (range 25–96) | ||||||||
| Women | Male | 157 (54) | 1.1 | Male | 1350 (56) | 1.3 | ||
| Female | 135 (46) | 1.0 | Female | 1050 (44) | 1.0 | |||
| Uninsured people | Private insurance | 180 (62) | Not applicable (all are insured) | |||||
| Medicare or Medicaid | 105 (36) | |||||||
| No insurance | 3 (1) | |||||||
| Status unknown | 4 (1) | |||||||
| People with AIDS | HIV/AIDS† | 6 (2) | 30.3 | HIV/AIDS‡ | 29 (22) | 7.9 | ||
| Findings based on partly direct and partly inferential data | ||||||||
| People with low educational status | <High school | 25 (9) | 1.0 | Indirect data (via SES); no direct relationship | ||||
| HS graduate | 82 (28) | 1.8 | ||||||
| Some college | 64 (22) | 3.2 | ||||||
| Baccalaureate or higher | 121 (41) | 7.6 | ||||||
| The poor (people with low SES) | Rate low¶ | Low SES§ | 1400 (38) | 1.0 | ||||
| Moderate SES | 1200 (33) | 1.0 | ||||||
| High SES | 800 (22) | 1.2 | ||||||
| Institutions§ | 300 (8) | 0.3 | ||||||
| Racial and ethnic minorities | White | 284 (97) | 1.0 | No data (Dutch mortality statistics are not kept by race) | ||||
| African-American | 0 (0%) | |||||||
| Hispanic | 1 (<1%) | 0.4 | ||||||
| Native American | 1 (<1%) | 0.5 | ||||||
| Asian | 6 (2) | 1.8 | ||||||
| Other | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| People with chronic physical or mental disabilities or chronic non-terminal illnesses | Not legal; no cases reported or identified | No data to calculate denominator; probably 10 cases or fewer per year | ||||||
| Minors | Not legal; no cases reported or identified | 1.6% of all deaths of minors aged 1–16 years | ||||||
| Findings based on inferential or partly contested data | ||||||||
| People with psychiatric illness, including depression and Alzheimer disease | Not legal; no clear cases; three disputed cases among those given prescription (n = 456) | No data to calculate denominator; increased requests among cancer patients with depression; probably rare for psychiatric illness as main diagnosis; legal in Alzheimer disease with advance euthanasia directive but compliance rare | ||||||
*All estimates are based upon data about a sample of 9000 deaths from August to November 2005, unless indicated otherwise; 2005 data are used for simplicity. Data are roughly comparable for entire period studied. Also see van der Heide et al, 2007.17
†Referent is chronic lower respiratory disorder.
‡Estimate based upon prevalence study from early 1990s.
¶Indirect data (via educational level and insuredness).
§Estimates based upon 2001 nationwide study; also see Onwuteaka-Philipsen et al, 2003.16
LAWER, life-ending acts without explicit current request; PAS, physician-assisted suicide; SES, socioeconomic status.