Knowledge and attitude towards euthanasia among health care professionals

Abstract

Introduction and Aim: Every person has right to live and die with dignity. Pain is inevitable but suffering is optional. A person demands to get rid of suffering is not suicide or murder; it’s called “EUTHANASIA”, “MERCY KILLING”. The present study was aimed to assess the knowledge and attitude towards euthanasia among health care professionals. Methodology: A Quantitative Non-experimental descriptive research approach and design was used. Total 150 health care professionals were selected by Non-probability purposive sampling technique from selected Hospital of Punjab. Structured questionnaire was used to assess knowledge and attitude towards euthanasia among health care professionals. Result: The collected data was analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistics which revealed that out of the 150 health care professionals 74(49.3%) were having good knowledge, followed by 57(38.0%) were having excellent knowledge and 19(12.7%) were having average level of knowledge. Similarly, majority of respondents 128(85.3%) were having Neutral attitude, 16(10.6%) were having favorable and only 06(4%) were having unfavorable attitude towards euthanasia. The correlation coefficient value is +0.98, that releaved that positive relationship with level of knowledge and attitude of health care professionals. The association of knowledge and attitude with selected demographic variables of health care professionals revealed that there was statistical significance association with level of knowledge and conference/ workshop/training attended by health care professionals and there was statistical significance association with attitude and age of health care professionals at 0.05 level of significance. Conclusion: The health care professionals having good knowledge and Neutral attitude towards euthanasia. There is broad scope to create awareness towards euthanasia among health care professionals.