My Parent’s Dignified Death is Different from Mine: Moral Problem Solving about Euthanasia

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to explore the moral problem solving of Israeli adult children concerning passive euthanasia when considering the death of any citizen in society, one’s own death, a partner’s death, and the impending death of an elderly ill parent. The qualitative analysis of 12 in-depth interview transcripts by analytic induction and constant comparison methods revealed how adults think about moral problems that are of differing distances from the self. A parents’ death, compared with other deaths, elicited strong emotional reactions and was associated with reasoning struggles that involved a wide range of role perspectives; a moral orientation of care; and value priorities of honor through loyalty, compassion and devotion.