Should Incurable Patients Be Allowed to Die?

Abstract

We examined differences in attitudes to the question “Should incurable patients be allowed to die?” using the General Social Survey cumulative data from 1972–2002. Utilizing logistic regression, we examined support for this statement with age, gender, race and other background variables in the basic model. Our findings are in line with past work that finds younger people, men and self-defined liberals support non-treatment compared to others all else equal. Controlling for background variables; however, we found that whites are less likely to support non-treatment than blacks.