Evaluation of Knowledge and Attitudes toward Euthanasia between Physicians and Caregivers

Authors

  • Sukhbaatar Chuluunsukh Forensic Agency of Mongolia, Department of Forensic Medicine, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9070-8456
  • Minjuur Tserenbat School of Bio-Medicine, 2 Mongolian National University of Medical Sciences, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
  • Enkhbat Bayarmaa School of Bio-Medicine, Mongolian National University of Medical Sciences, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
  • Tseren Tuvshinjargal School of General Education, Mongolian National University of Medical Sciences, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
  • Tseren Tuvshinjargal School of General Education, Mongolian National University of Medical Sciences, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24079/cajms.2023.09.004

Keywords:

Active Euthanasia, Human Rights, End-Of-Life Care, Assisted Suicide, Right to Die

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to estimate the knowledge of the legal regulation of euthanasia and painless death among terminally ill patients, their caregivers, and attending physicians. Methods: The study was conducted using an analytical survey design and evaluated by a questionnaire of the target sample group. Results: According to the patient’s age group, those under 49 were most likely to support euthanasia at 93.1%, and those over 50 were 73.3%. Furthermore, 87.5% of those who said they had financial problems, 91.7% of those who said they had long queues at the hospital, difficulty in getting medical care, 66.7% of those who said they were bedridden or had a lot of pain, and 100% of those who said they would have mental depression or other problems were in favor of euthanasia. In the physicians, 96.6% of the doctors who participated in the study said they knew about euthanasia, 100% of those who believed that euthanasia was ethical and knew the types of euthanasia, and 95% of those who thought that there were ethical differences in the types of euthanasia, supported euthanasia. Conclusion:Our study demonstrated that caregivers generally support the legalization of euthanasia. 70.8% of those who said that euthanasia could be performed by medical indications, 79.2% of those who said that it could be performed at the request of the patient, 54.2% of those who said that it could be performed at the request of the family of a patient without legal capacity, and 35.4% of those who said that it could be performed at the request of a treating physician tended to support euthanasia.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.
Abstract
51
PDF
108

References

World Health Organization. Definition of Health and Well Being [accessed on 5th April 2023]. Available from: https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/major-themes/health-and-well-being.

Kaplan RM. Health psychology: where are we and where do we go from here? Mens Sana Monogr. 2009;7(1):3-9. https://doi.org/10.4103/0973-1229.43584

Math SB, Chaturvedi SK. Euthanasia: right to life vs right to die. Indian J Med Res. 2012;136(6):899-902. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3612319/

Picón-Jaimes YA, Lozada-Martinez ID, Orozco-Chinome JE, et al., Euthanasia and assisted suicide: an in-depth review of relevant historical aspects. Ann Med Surg (Lond). 2022; 75:103380. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amsu.2022.103380

Skiadas P, Mavrantonis CS, Polimeropoulos V, Papadimitriou DJ. Euthanasia and suicide in antiquity: viewpoint of the dramatists and philosophers. J R Soc Med. 2007;100(1):25-8. https://doi.org/10.1177/014107680710000111

Kissane DW, Street A, Nitschke P. Seven deaths in Darwin. Lancet. 1998; 352:1097-102. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(98)05406-3

Chin AE, Hedberg K, Higginson GH, et al. Legalized physician-assisted suicide in Oregon--the first-year experience. N Engl J Med. 1999; 340:577-83. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJM199902183400724

Emmanual EJ, Fairclough DL, Passik SD. Interest in physician-assisted suicide. Lancet. 1996; 347:1805-10. https://doi.org/ 10.1016/s0140-6736(96)91621-9

Blendon RJ, Szalay US, Knox RA. Should physicians aid their patients in dying? J. Am. Med. Assoc. 1992; 267:2658-62. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1573758/

Miles SH. The Hippocratic Oath and the Ethics of Medicine. Oxford; New York: OUP. 2004. p 237-9. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10730-005-2550-2

Ministry of Health. Code of ethics for medical professionals, Order No. 406. 2019 Patient right 1.1.5. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2022.19697

Health Council of Canada. Canadians' experiences with chronic illness care in 2007: a data supplement to Why health care renewal matters: learning from Canadians with chronic health conditions. Accessed Dec 2007: https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2008/hc-sc/H174-13-2007-1E.pdf.

Emanuel EJ, Fairclough DL, Emanual LL. Attitudes and desires related to euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide among terminally ill patients and their caregivers. Attitudes about euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. J Am Med Assoc. 2000;19:2460-8. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.284.19.2460

Marco CA. Ethical issues of resuscitation: an American perspective. Postgrad Med J. 2005;81:608-12. https://doi.org/10.1136/pgmj.2004.030429

Löfmark R, Nilstun T, Cartwright C, et al. Physicians' experiences with end-of-life decision-making: survey in 6 European countries and Australia. BMC Med. 2008;6:4. https://doi.org/10.1186/1741-7015-6-4

Cohen J, Marcoux I, Bislen J, et al. Trends in acceptance of euthanasia among the general public of 12 European countries (1981-1999). Eur J Public Health. 2006;16:663-9. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckl042

Ramirez RJ, Rodríguez R, Otero IY. Attitudes toward euthanasia, assisted suicide and termination of life-sustaining treatment of Puerto Rican medical students, medical residents, and faculty. Bol Asoc Med P R. 2000; 92:18-21. Accessed 2000. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10846284/

Sameer AS. Knowledge, awareness, and attitude of health profession students of KSAU-HS towards euthanasia. Ethics Med Public Health. 2020; 14:100522. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jemep.2020.100522

Jafary MH. Euthanasia: changing trends. J Pak Med Assoc. 1996; 46:269-270. Accessed 1996. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9000825/

Dashjamts Sh. The concept of compassion in Eastern and Western medical ethics. Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia: Mongolian National University of Medical Sciences; 2016.

Khamar D, Lkhagva L. Ethical Issues of Euthanasia. In: The 45th symposium on Erdmiin chuulgan. Abstract book. Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia: 2003; p 50-2.

Breitbart W, Rosenfeld B, Pessin H, et al. Depression, hopelessness, and desire for hastened death in terminally ill patients with cancer. JAMA. 2000;284(21):2907-11. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.284.22.2907

Munir TA, Afzal MN, Latif R. Attitude of Pakistani doctors towards euthanasia and assisted suicide. Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide. Pak Armed Forces Med J. 2010;60(1):9-12. Accessed Mar 2010. https://pafmj.org/PAFMJ/article/view/111

Sheldon T. Being tired of life is not grounds for euthanasia. BMJ. 2003;326(7387):71. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.326.7380.71/b

Verhagen E, Sauer PJJ. Euthanasia in severely ill newborns. N Engl J Med. 2005;352(10):959-62. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMp058026

Chuluunsukh S, Bayarmaa E, Tserenbat M, Tuvshinjargal T. Legal regulation of euthanasia in Mongolia. J Forensic Sci Res. 2023;14(3). https://www.hilarispublisher.com/open-access/legal-regulation-of-euthanasia-in-mongolia.pdf

Downloads

Published

2023-09-30

How to Cite

Chuluunsukh, S., Tserenbat, M., Bayarmaa, E., Tuvshinjargal, T., & Tuvshinjargal, T. (2023). Evaluation of Knowledge and Attitudes toward Euthanasia between Physicians and Caregivers. Central Asian Journal of Medical Sciences, 9(3), 131–139. https://doi.org/10.24079/cajms.2023.09.004

Issue

Vol. 9 No. 3 (2023)

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2023 Mongolian National University of Medical Sciences

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.