Background Little is known about the attitude of Belgian psychiatrists and psychiatrists in training towards euthanasia for psychiatric reasons.
Aim To analyse opinions about and experiences with euthanasia in physicians from a university psychiatric hospital.
Method A mail with a questionnaire was sent to the 111 psychiatrists and psychiatrists in training from University Psychiatric Centre KU Leuven to assess their profile, opinions towards euthanasia in different cases and own experiences with requests for euthanasia in the last five years.
Results The response rate was 45%. The majority of psychiatrists were accepting towards euthanasia, also in the case of psychiatric disorders (64%) or a combination of non-terminal somatic and psychosocial illness (60%). Religious psychiatrists were less accepting towards euthanasia than non-religious colleagues. Older psychiatrists (more than 20 years of working experience) were more open towards euthanasia than their younger colleagues, but less so than psychiatrists in training. Encounters with euthanasia were limited.
Conclusion The common attitude towards euthanasia in doctors from a tertiary psychiatric centre is accepting. More research in a broader population is recommended.