Attitudes Toward Active Voluntary Euthanasia Among Community-Dwelling Older Subjects

Stefano Poli

doi:10.1177/2158244017753868

Abstract

The major extension of late-life expectancy has increased the significance of end-of-life issues, particularly among elderly people, considering both the role of medical practices in shaping and de...

Highlights

Introduction and Theoretical BackgroundThe significant extension of late-life expectancy since the late 20th century has delayed the age of dying in contemporary society (Tosato, Zamboni, Ferrini, & Cesari, 2007)
To operationalize the main dependent variable, that is, personal attitudes toward active voluntary euthanasia (AVE), we adopted the abstract problem formulation used by Stronegger, Burkert, Grossschädl, and Freidl (2013), by referring precisely to AVE and asking, “Do you agree or disagree with a physician intentionally terminating the life of an incurably sick and suffering person, fulfilling her or his expressed wish to die?” We excluded a situational formulation, that is, using vignettes or referring to detailed case examples, because we found major misleading bias during the pretest phase
We utterly reduced the sample to 1,771 cases, excluding 11 cases (0.6% of the overall sample) of “no answer” or “undecided” respondents on the main dependent variable

Summary

Introduction

The significant extension of late-life expectancy since the late 20th century has delayed the age of dying in contemporary society (Tosato, Zamboni, Ferrini, & Cesari, 2007). This has increased the role played by medical interventions in extending and shaping older people’s dying, highlighting different aspects of the dying experience in later life, such as the degree of individual awareness, autonomy and choice (to preserve personal dignity and to control pain and fear; Lloyd, 2013), and the related medicalizing practices (which can prolong or hasten the dying process; Murray, Kendall, Boyd, & Sheick, 2005). Among the explanations for a positive attitude toward euthanasia, the authors mentioned the autonomy hypothesis

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