1.  Physicians claimed it left them in a legal limbo in which they technically committed a crime each time they carried out euthanasia.

2.  Doctors carrying out euthanasia generally administer a lethal injection to their patients, those assisting in suicides prescribe drug overdoses.

3.  Doctors may only carry out euthanasia at the repeated and lucid request of a patient who is suffering unbearable and irremediable pain.

4.  The case highlights the fact that many doctors carry out euthanasia in the Netherlands without reporting it to the authorities and some reportedly kill patients without them requesting euthanasia.

5.  Doctors charged in the World War II Nuremberg war crimes trials had been accused of carrying out euthanasia, he said.

6.  The doctor told reporters he had not informed the patient about the disease nor obtained his consent to carry out euthanasia.