French physicians' attitudes toward legalisation of euthanasia and the ambiguous relationship between euthanasia and palliative care.
J Palliat Care
; 19(4): 271-7, 2003.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-14959598
ABSTRACT
In 1999, the French Parliament established a "right to palliative care", which reactivated public debate about euthanasia. In order to investigate jointly physicians' attitude toward palliative care and euthanasia, we conducted a cross-sectional survey of a national sample of French GPs, oncologists, and neurologists. Overall, 917 physicians participated in the survey. Significant proportions of respondents, especially among GPs and neurologists, considered that palliative sedation and withdrawing life-sustaining treatments (WLST) were euthanasia. Multivariate analysis showed that the physicians who had special medical training in palliative care, and those who distinguish palliative sedation and WLST from euthanasia were more likely to oppose legalisation of euthanasia. Thus, French physicians' attitude to the legalisation of euthanasia is strongly influenced by whether or not they distinguish palliative care from euthanasia. Improved palliative care requires better training of the entire medical profession, and clearer guidelines about which end-of-life care practices are legally and ethically acceptable.
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Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Cuidados Paliativos
/
Médicos
/
Atitude do Pessoal de Saúde
/
Atitude Frente a Morte
/
Eutanásia
Tipo de estudo:
Guideline
/
Prognostic_studies
/
Qualitative_research
Limite:
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
País como assunto:
Europa
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2003
Tipo de documento:
Article