(Press-News.org) Los Angeles, CA (March 10th, 2011) – A review of research carried out over 20 years suggests that UK doctors appear to consistently oppose euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide (PAS). The findings - which appear in the latest issue of the journal Palliative Medicine, published by SAGE - highlight a gap between doctors' attitudes and those of the UK public.
The study, carried out by Dr Ruaidhrí McCormack and colleagues Dr M Clifford and Dr M Conroy at the Department of Palliative Medicine, Milford Care Centre, Limerick, Eire, searched through literature from 1990 to 2010 and found 16 key studies. These examined UK doctors' attitudes to either assisted voluntary euthanasia (AVE), or PAS, or both. Qualitative and quantitative data were included.
Definitions of these terms are considered controversial. The authors were guided by the European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC) ethics task force, who defined euthanasia as: "a doctor intentionally killing a person by the administration of drugs, at that person's voluntary and competent request." PAS was further defined as: "a doctor intentionally helping a person to commit suicide by providing drugs for self-administration, at that person's voluntary and competent request". In both instances, the patient plays an active role and must provide explicit consent.
The majority of doctors opposed AVE in all of the studies but one (11 of the studies examined attitudes to AVE). The majority of doctors were against PAS in eight of the ten studies examining this topic. One study was unclear due to the question phrasing, while a study of ICU physicians demonstrated majority support for PAS. Six studies asked doctors if they would perform these practices were they made legal, on average only about a quarter would be willing (PAS: 25 percent, AVE: 23 percent).
One of the strongest predictors of a doctor's unwillingness was religiosity, with the most faithful least likely to consider assisting death, or supporting its UK introduction. Other factors consistently highlighted were that palliative care reduces suffering and limits the need for assisted dying, the need for adequate safeguards were AVE or PAS introduced, and the idea of a profession to facilitate these practices that does not include doctors.
"Further studies are necessary to establish if subgroup variables other than degree of religiosity influence attitudes, and to thoroughly explore the qualitative themes that appeared," said McCormack. Themes such as AVE/PAS in the contexts of technological advancement, increased "medicalisation" and reducing futile medical treatment, an opt-out clause for individual doctors, and concern about patient's mental state and level of autonomy all merit future research.
###
The study was the first systematic review specifically looking at the attitudes of UK doctors. According to a British Social Attitudes survey published in 2007, up to 80 percent of the British public support voluntary euthanasia by a doctor in the case of terminal illness, and up to 60 percent support PAS given the same scenario.
Under strict embargo until 12:01am GMT Thursday March 10th 2011
For a copy of the paper please contact jayne.fairley@sagepub.co.uk
Attitudes of UK doctors towards euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide: A systematic literature review by R McCormack, M Clifford and M Conroy is published today (March 10th, 2011) in the journal Palliative Medicine.
Lead author contact information: r.mccormack@kcl.ac.uk
SAGE is a leading international publisher of journals, books, and electronic media for academic, educational, and professional markets. Since 1965, SAGE has helped inform and educate a global community of scholars, practitioners, researchers, and students spanning a wide range of subject areas including business, humanities, social sciences, and science, technology and medicine. An independent company, SAGE has principal offices in Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC. www.sagepublications.com
UK doctors consistently oppose euthanasia and assisted suicide
2011-03-10
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
NIST electromechanical circuit sets record beating microscopic 'drum'
2011-03-10
BOULDER, Colo.—Physicists at the National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
have demonstrated an electromechanical
circuit in which microwaves communicate with
a vibrating mechanical component 1,000 times
more vigorously than ever achieved before in
similar experiments. The microscopic
apparatus is a new tool for processing
information and potentially could control the
motion of a relatively large object at the
smallest possible, or quantum, scale.
Described in the March 10 issue of Nature,* the NIST experiments created strong
interactions between ...
Researchers find smoking may increase risk for lung disease
2011-03-10
Boston, MA – A team of researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) have found that approximately one out of every twelve adult smokers have abnormal lung densities present on chest computed tomography (CT) images suggestive of interstitial lung disease which is associated with substantial reductions in lung volumes. In addition, despite being positively associated with smoking, these lung densities were inversely not associated with emphysema. This research is published online on March 10th in the New England Journal of Medicine.
It is increasingly acknowledged ...
Tiny gems take big step toward battling cancer
2011-03-10
Chemotherapy drug resistance contributes to treatment failure in more than 90 percent of metastatic cancers. Overcoming this hurdle would significantly improve cancer survival rates.
Dean Ho, an associate professor of biomedical engineering and mechanical engineering at Northwestern University, believes a tiny carbon particle called a nanodiamond may offer an effective drug delivery solution for hard-to-treat cancers.
In studies of liver and breast cancer models in vivo, Ho and a multidisciplinary team of scientists, engineers and clinicians found that a normally lethal ...
Study illuminates role of cerebrospinal fluid in brain stem cell development
2011-03-10
Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), the fluid found in and around the brain and spinal cord, may play a larger role in the developing brain than previously thought, according to researchers at Children's Hospital Boston. A paper published online March 10th by the journal Neuron sheds light on how signals from the CSF help drive neural development. The paper also identifies a CSF protein whose levels are elevated in patients with glioblastoma, a common malignant brain tumor, suggesting a potential link between CSF signaling and brain tumor growth and regulation.
The study, led ...
Stanford scientists discover anti-anxiety circuit in brain region considered the seat of fear
2011-03-10
STANFORD, Calif. — Stimulation of a distinct brain circuit that lies within a brain structure typically associated with fearfulness produces the opposite effect: Its activity, instead of triggering or increasing anxiety, counters it.
That's the finding in a paper by Stanford University School of Medicine researchers to be published online March 9 in Nature. In the study, Karl Deisseroth, MD, PhD, and his colleagues employed a mouse model to show that stimulating activity exclusively in this circuit enhances animals' willingness to take risks, while inhibiting its activity ...
Differences in mammalian brain structure and genitalia linked to specific DNA regions in new study
2011-03-10
STANFORD, Calif. — Humans are clearly different from chimpanzees. The question is, why? According to researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine, it may boil down in part to what we don't have, rather than what we do. The loss of snippets of regulatory DNA, the scientists found, could be the reason why, for example, humans lack the penile spines found in many other mammals, and also why specific regions of our brains are larger than those of our closest relatives.
Understanding these and other differences may help us learn what it means to be human. But ...
A new look at the adolescent brain: It's not all emotional chaos
2011-03-10
Adolescence is often described as a tumultuous time, where heightened reactivity and impulsivity lead to negative behaviors like substance abuse and unsafe sexual activity. Previous research has pointed to the immature adolescent brain as a major liability, but now, a unique study reveals that some brain changes associated with adolescence may not be driving teens towards risky behavior but may actually reflect a decrease in susceptibility to peer pressure. The findings, published by Cell Press in the March 10 issue of the journal Neuron, provide a more complete perspective ...
A-ha! The neural mechanisms of insight
2011-03-10
Although it is quite common for a brief, unique experience to become part of our long-term memory, the underlying brain mechanisms associated with this type of learning are not well understood. Now, a new brain-imaging study looks at the neural activity associated with a specific type of rapid learning, insight. The research, published by Cell Press in the March 10 issue of the journal Neuron, reveals specific brain activity that occurs during an "A-ha!" moment that may help encode the new information in long-term memory.
"In daily life, information that results from ...
In adolescence, the power to resist blooms in the brain
2011-03-10
Just when children are faced with intensifying peer pressure to misbehave, regions of the brain are actually blossoming in a way that heighten the ability to resist risky behavior, report researchers at three West Coast institutions.
The findings -- detailed in the March 10 issue of the journal Neuron -- may give parents a sigh of relief regarding their kids as they enter adolescence and pay more attention to their friends. However, the research provides scientists with basic insight about the brain's wiring, rather than direct clinical relevance for now.
In the study, ...
Drug use increasingly associated with microbial infections
2011-03-10
Illicit drug users are at increased risk of being exposed to microbial pathogens and are more susceptible to serious infections say physicians writing in the Journal of Medical Microbiology. The review, which aims to improve the microbiological diagnosis of drug use-related infections, assesses the role of drug related practices in the spread of a range of bacterial, viral, fungal and protozoal infections.
The review by collaborators from the Armed Forces Medical College, Pune, India highlights convincing evidence that unsterile injection practices, contaminated needles, ...