Attitudes toward Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia among Physicians in South Carolina and Washington

Abstract

Active euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide has been highlighted in the 1990s, yet little is known about physicians' attitudes toward these practices. We replicated a study of Washington physicians in South Carolina to determine attitudes toward assisted suicide and euthanasia. Questionnaires were mailed to 1, 119 physicians in South Carolina; the Washington study had the same sample composition from 1, 355 doctors. Logistic regression was used to investigate the effects of gender and practice characteristics (independent variables) on attitudes toward euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. Frequency distributions were computed to compare the South Carolina (54% response rate) and Washington (69% response rate) data. Attitudes toward physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia of physicians in South Carolina and Washington are polarized. Overall, physicians' attitudes in the two states were remarkably similar.