Attitudes Toward Physician Assisted Suicide: Poland and the United States

Abstract

A scale to measure attitudes toward physician assisted suicide was administered to a sample ( N=246) of Polish citizens and a sample ( N=246) of U.S. citizens equated on gender, marital status, religion, and socioeconomic level. In both samples the reliability was substantial (Cronbach's alphas of .93 and .89), and the factor structure identical (one major factor). Significant ethnic differences were found for 10 of the 12 scale items, but no differences related to demographic variables. The obtained differences appear to parallel a conservative-liberal dimension, though this will need to be assessed in future studies.