The Acceptability of Ending a Patient's Life: A France-Portugal-Spain Comparison

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2014

Authors

Etienne Mullet (Author) Other; Felix Neto (Author) FPCEUP; Conceicao Pinto (Author) Other; Rosa M Maria Raich (Author) Other; Maria Teresa Munoz Sastre (Author) Other; Paul C Sorum (Author) Other

Journal

Title: Death Studies

Vol. 38 No. 1

Pages: 28-35

ISSN: 0748-1187

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 1 Citation

Scopus - 1 Citation

Scientific classification

FOS: Social sciences > Psychology

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-006-HSF

DOI: 10.1080/07481187.2012.712607

Abstract (EN): The views of French, Portuguese, and Spanish people on end-of-life decisions were compared. Two hundred seventy-seven adults from Barcelona, Oporto, and Toulouse judged the acceptability of life-ending procedures in 42 scenarios composed of all combinations of 3 factors: the patient's age (30 or 80 years), the patient's life expectancy (days, weeks, or months), and the type of procedure (suicide, suicide assisted by the physician, euthanasia by the physician at the request of a suffering patient, euthanasia of a comatose patient at the family's request, euthanasia of a comatose patient as stipulated in the patient's advance directives, euthanasia of a comatose patient without advance directions and without a request from the family, or euthanasia of a suffering patient without a request from the patient). In all 3 countries, the type of procedure had the major effect. The 4 procedures implemented by the patient or at the patient's request were, on average, considered acceptable. The 2 procedures not implemented at the patient's request were considered unacceptable. Euthanasia of a comatose patient at the request of the family was judged mildly acceptable. The attitudes of the people in Toulouse, Oporto, and Barcelona concerning the acceptability of ending a patient's life have now largely converged, although Spanish participants were statistically significantly more accepting than French and Portuguese participants.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

Notes: <a href="http://gateway.isiknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcAuth=Alerting&SrcApp=Alerting&DestApp=WOS&DestLinkType=FullRecord&KeyUT=000325450800004">Acesso à Web of Science</a> <br> <a href="http://www.scopus.com/record/display.url?eid=2-s2.0-84885934313&origin=resultslist">Acesso à Scopus</a>