 In 2003, in the Netherlands, 1,626 cases were officially reported of euthanasia in the sense of a physician assisting the death (1.2 % of all deaths).Usually the sedative sodium thiopental is intravenously administered to induce a coma.Once it is certain that the patient is in a deep coma, typically after less than a minute, pancuronium is administered to stop breathing and cause death.