Assisted dying in Swedish healthcare: a qualitative analysis of physicians' reasoning about physician-assisted suicide.
Primum non nocere
Autonomy principle
Dysphemism
Physician assisted suicide
Physician attitude
Prescribing lethal drugs
Slippery-slope arguments
Journal
Monash bioethics review
ISSN: 1836-6716
Titre abrégé: Monash Bioeth Rev
Pays: United States
ID NLM: 100973394
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
26 Jul 2024
26 Jul 2024
Historique:
accepted:
30
06
2024
medline:
27
7
2024
pubmed:
27
7
2024
entrez:
26
7
2024
Statut:
aheadofprint
Résumé
To explore Swedish physicians' arguments and values for and against physician-assisted suicide (PAS) extracted from the free-text comments in a postal survey. A random selection of approximately 240 physicians from each of the following specialties: general practice, geriatrics, internal medicine, oncology, surgery and psychiatry. All 123 palliative care physicians in Sweden. A qualitative content analysis of free-text comments in a postal questionnaire commissioned by the Swedish Medical Society in collaboration with the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. The total response rate was 59.2%. Of the 933 respondents, 1107 comments were provided. The free-text comments entailed both normative and factual arguments for and against PAS. The analysis resulted in two main categories: (1) "Safe implementation of PAS is unachievable" (with subcategories "Criteria of PAS difficult to fulfil" and "PAS puts societal norms and values at risk") and (2) "The role of PAS in healthcare" (with subcategories "No medical need for PAS", "PAS is not a task for physicians", "No ethical difference to other end-of-life decisions" and "PAS is in the patient's best interest"). The respondents brought up well-known arguments from academic and public debate on the subject. Comments from physicians against PAS were more often emotionally charged and used devices like dysphemisms and slippery-slope arguments.
Identifiants
pubmed: 39060645
doi: 10.1007/s40592-024-00202-5
pii: 10.1007/s40592-024-00202-5
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Informations de copyright
© 2024. The Author(s).
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