Self-regulation by the Dutch medical profession of medical behavior that potentially shortens life

One of the most striking features of the way in which the Dutch have gone about regulating euthanasia and other "medical behavior that potentially shortens Life (MBPS) the key role that self-regulation has played in the process of legal development.' The rules and procedures that govern euthanasia were largely worked out within the medical profession before being adopted in the case law and in (proposed) legislation. The same process has recently repeated itself for MBPSL in the context of neonatology and of the care of patients in a "persistent vegetative state" and for assistance with suicide in the case of psychiatric patients. The beginnings of a similar process are now becoming visible for the vast and varied category of decisions to abstain from life-prolonging treatment. This approach to the development of regulation of MBPSL seems to be characteristically Dutch- I do not know of another country of which it is true, and the course of legal development takes quite other forms in the United States, for example