The doctor may not suggest death as an option. In all cases, physicians must seek a second medical opinion before helping a patient to die, and they must report the cause of death as euthanasia or suicide. Physicians will remain accountable for their actions. What is new, as euthanasia is decriminalized, is that physicians will not be accountable to a prosecutor but to a panel of peers, including legal, medical and ethical experts. Under the new legislation, no one has a right to euthanasia.
Every doctor has a right to refuse to cooperate if a patient asks for help to die.
One clause in an earlier draft of the legislation that would have permitted terminally ill children 12 or older to choose to die was dropped after it caused a public outcry. As passed today, the law would require young people from 12 to 16 to have parental consent. From age 16, they may put the question to their doctor without their parents' approval. The measure is likely to draw particular scrutiny in other countries wrestling with the questions of doctor-assisted suicide and euthanasia. In Belgium, France and Switzerland, the issue has been under intense debate among legislators and in the news media.