Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T00:05:59.074Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Physician Attitudes and Experiences with Assisted Suicide: Results of a Small Opinion Survey

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2009

Chris Ciesielski-Carlucci
Affiliation:
Medical student in the University of California at Berkeley/San Francisco Joint Medical Program, completing a Master's thesis on the subject of euthanasia, and serves as the codirector of the American Medical Student Association's Bioethics Task Force

Extract

Many recent events have contributed to the resurgence of the historically cyclical debate over euthanasia. Now, the focus rests on physician-assisted suicide. Many landmark events regarding physician-assisted suicide have occurred within the last year alone. For example, Derek Humphry's Final Exit recently became a best seller, giving people the detailed knowledge of how to “self-deliver” In The New England Journalbf Medicine, Dr. Timothy Quill shared his touching experience of assisting his patient “Diane” after she chose to decline treatment options for leu- kemia. Dr. Jack Kevorkian made use of his highly publicized “death machine” to help Janet Adkins and subsequently, several other women, end their lives

Type
Special Section: Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide: Murder or Mercy?
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

1. Boly, W, Franklin, D, Hall, S, Rymer, R, Tisdale, S. The ethics poll. Hippocrates 1992;05(special issue):32–3.Google Scholar

2. Heilig, S. The San Francisco euthanasia survey: results and analyses. San Francisco Medicine 1988;61(5):24–6, 34.Google Scholar

3. Kuhse, H, Singer, P. Doctors' practices and attitudes regarding voluntary euthanasia. The Medical Journal of Australia 1988;148:623–7.Google ScholarPubMed

4. Overmyer, M. Physician's views on the right to die. Physician's Management 1991;07(special issue):4076.Google Scholar

5. Slome, L. Physicians' attitudes toward assisted suicide in acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. A dissertation for the California School of Professional Psychology, Berkeley. 1990(08):53.Google Scholar

6. Somerville, J. Survey finds support among Colorado MD's for euthanasia. American Medical News 1988;07. 1:17.Google Scholar