Critical Care Plus: Terminally Ill Cancer Patients Favor Right to Die
Critical Care Plus
Terminally Ill Cancer Patients Favor Right to Die
By Julie Crawshaw
Terminally ill cancer patients by and large support legalizing euthanasia and assisted suicide for instances when symptoms become too painful to bear.
The results of a survey appeared in the Sept. 11, 2000, issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. Those who oppose legalizing such practices do so on religious or moral grounds, researchers reveal. The findings, they say, suggest that a consensus between those who oppose and those who support these practices is unlikely.
"It is apparent from these reasons that people with different opinions about legalization are not simply arguing for different sides of the same issue; rather, their positions are grounded in different issues altogether," concludes Keith G. Wilson, MD, with The Rehabilitation Centre in Ottawa, Canada.
Investigators found that of the 70 terminally ill patients interviewed, 73% believed that euthanasia and assisted suicide are acceptable practices, and 21% thought neither practice was acceptable and should not be legalized. Overall, if the practices were legal, 58% said they might decide to hasten their death if pain and physical symptoms were to become intolerable.
Researchers point out, however, that pain is not the only reason terminally ill patients wish to die. "Psychological and existential dimensions of suffering—which are perhaps no less central in determining quality of life—also emerge as important reasons behind patient requests for physician-hastened death," they conclude.
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