Medical students’ and residents’ views on euthanasia
Abstract Background Doctors are increasingly faced with end-of-life decisions. Little is known about how medical students approach euthanasia. The objective of this study was to evaluate, among medical students and residents, the view on euthanasia and its variants; correlate such a view with empathy and religiosity/spiritualism; and with the stages of medical training in Brazil. Methods This is an exploratory cross-sectional study using an online questionnaire to be filled out on a voluntary basis among medical students and residents, consisting of: socio-demographic data, an empathy questionnaire and questions with elaborate clinical cases that typify situations of the variants of euthanasia. Results From 1550 invitations, 273 volunteer participants responded (17.6%). The percentages of strong agreement/agreement on the concepts were: passive euthanasia (72.9%); active euthanasia (22.3%), orthothanasia (90.1%), dysthanasia (18.7%), assisted suicide (33%) and sedation (82.8%). Passive euthanasia, active euthanasia, dysthanasia and assisted suicide showed greater refusal with increasing length of medical training. Religious belief and degree of empathy did not significantly influence the opinion about the concepts. Strong agreement/agreement were: passive euthanasia (72.9%); active euthanasia (22.3%), orthothanasia (90.1%), dysthanasia (18.7%), assisted suicide (33%) and sedation (82.8%). Conclusions Passive euthanasia, active euthanasia, dysthanasia and assisted suicide showed greater refusal with increasing length of medical training. The external validation of our findings relies on the distinct legal, cultural, and religious frameworks found across various countries.
Citação
@online{rogério_aparecido2023,
author = {Rogério Aparecido , Dedivitis and Matos, Leandro Luongo, De
and Castro, Mario Augusto Ferrari, De and Castro, Andrea Anacleto
Ferrari, De and Renata Rocha , Giaxa and Patrícia Zen , Tempski},
title = {Medical students’ and residents’ views on euthanasia},
volume = {24},
number = {1},
date = {2023-12-08},
doi = {10.1186/s12910-023-00986-x},
langid = {pt-BR},
abstract = {Abstract Background Doctors are increasingly faced with
end-of-life decisions. Little is known about how medical students
approach euthanasia. The objective of this study was to evaluate,
among medical students and residents, the view on euthanasia and its
variants; correlate such a view with empathy and
religiosity/spiritualism; and with the stages of medical training in
Brazil. Methods This is an exploratory cross-sectional study using
an online questionnaire to be filled out on a voluntary basis among
medical students and residents, consisting of: socio-demographic
data, an empathy questionnaire and questions with elaborate clinical
cases that typify situations of the variants of euthanasia. Results
From 1550 invitations, 273 volunteer participants responded
(17.6\%). The percentages of strong agreement/agreement on the
concepts were: passive euthanasia (72.9\%); active euthanasia
(22.3\%), orthothanasia (90.1\%), dysthanasia (18.7\%), assisted
suicide (33\%) and sedation (82.8\%). Passive euthanasia, active
euthanasia, dysthanasia and assisted suicide showed greater refusal
with increasing length of medical training. Religious belief and
degree of empathy did not significantly influence the opinion about
the concepts. Strong agreement/agreement were: passive euthanasia
(72.9\%); active euthanasia (22.3\%), orthothanasia (90.1\%),
dysthanasia (18.7\%), assisted suicide (33\%) and sedation (82.8\%).
Conclusions Passive euthanasia, active euthanasia, dysthanasia and
assisted suicide showed greater refusal with increasing length of
medical training. The external validation of our findings relies on
the distinct legal, cultural, and religious frameworks found across
various countries.}
}