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Physicians in UK Much Less
Likely than Public to Support Euthanasia, Physician-Assisted
Suicide, Study Show By Dave Andrusko The latest issue of Palliative Medicine carries a fascinating study of the “gap” that exists between the attitudes of the public in the United Kingdom toward euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide and UK physicians—doctors appear to consistently oppose them both and the public doesn’t. What Drs. McCormack, Clifford, and Conroy did was to search the literature and come up with they saw as 16 key studies examining “qualitative and quantitative data” about UK doctor’s attitudes to what the study called assisted voluntary euthanasia (AVE), Physician-Assisted Suicide (PAS), or both. According to Science Daily, “The study was the first systematic review specifically looking at the attitudes of UK doctors.” Without getting into the minutiae, a summary of the study found that “The majority of doctors opposed AVE in all of the studies but one (11 of the studies examined attitudes to AVE). The majority of doctors were against PAS in eight of the ten studies examining this topic.” Two other studies were unclear. In another six studies, physicians were asked if they would perform either (if they were made legal). “[O]n average only about a quarter would be willing (PAS: 25 percent, AVE: 23 percent).” The public’s attitude, assuming it is accurate, is listed in the final paragraph of the Science Daily overview: “According to a British Social Attitudes survey published in 2007, up to 80 percent of the British public support voluntary euthanasia by a doctor in the case of terminal illness, and up to 60 percent support PAS.” What are some of the predictors of whether a physician is willing to perform either “assisted voluntary euthanasia” or physician- assisted suicide? According to the three researchers from the Department of Palliative Medicine, Milford Care Centre, one of the strongest is religiosity. The most faithful were “the least likely to consider assisting death, or supporting its UK introduction.” I need your feedback on both Today's News & Views and National Right to Life News Today. Please send your comments to daveandrusko@gmail.com. If you like, join those who are following me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/daveha |