Last updated on: 7/27/2009 | Author: ProCon.org

Agnes van der Heide, MD, PhD Biography

Title:
Senior Researcher at the Department of Public Health at Erasmus University
Position:
Pro to the question "Should Euthanasia or Physician-Assisted Suicide Be Legal?"
Reasoning:

“Modern western health care and public health seem to involve a certain level of public demand for physician assistance in dying, in countries both where it is legal and where it is illegal. This demand makes discussion of this issue inevitable and necessary. A regulatory system allowing physician assistance in dying offers better guarantees for the quality of medical care and for patient involvement than does illegality.”

Cowritten with Johannes M. van Delden and Gerrit van der Wal, “Doctor-Assisted Dying: What Difference Does Legalisation Make?,” The Lancet, Dec. 2004
Theoretical Expertise Ranking:
    Experts
Individuals with MDs, JDs, PhDs, or equivalent advanced degrees in fields relevant to end-of-life issues. Also top-level government officials (such as foreign leaders, US presidents, Founding Fathers, Supreme Court Justices, members of legislative bodies, cabinet members, military leaders, etc.) with positions relevant to end-of-life.
Involvement and Affiliations:
  • Senior Researcher, Department of Public Health, Erasmus University, Rotterdam (Holland) 1994-present
  • Advisor, ELD 3/Minors Project Group, Monitoring Quality of End-of-Life Care (MELC)
Education:
  • PhD, Department of Rheumatology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Holland, 1994
  • MD, Nijmegen University, Holland, 1991
Other:
  • None found
Quoted in:
  1. Would Legalizing Physician-Assisted Suicide or Voluntary Euthanasia Create a Slippery Slope to Non-Voluntary or Involuntary Euthanasia?