The attitude of young adults with chronic disease or handicaps towards enforced treatment and euthanasia
Title
The attitude of young adults with chronic disease or handicaps towards enforced treatment and euthanasia
Creator
Brook U
Identifier
Publisher
Patient Education And Counseling
Date
1999
Subject
Female; Humans; Male; Adolescent Psychology; Attitude to Health; Medical Futility; Prognosis; Questionnaires; Attitude to Death; Physician's Role; Informed Consent; Israel; Case-Control Studies; quality of life; adolescent; decision making; Family/psychology; Treatment Refusal/psychology; Chronic Disease/psychology; Disabled Persons/psychology; Euthanasia/psychology; Terminal Care/psychology
Description
One hundred fifty-nine young adults in the 17-18 year old age group suffering from chronic disease or handicap participated in this study which examined their attitudes towards enforced treatment and euthanasia in terminal patients. The comparison group included 120 healthy high school pupils of the same age group. A total of 42.6% of the chronic patients thought that enforced treatment was justified even if the patient didn't understand its importance and didn't want treatment (in comparison with 23.3% of the healthy pupils who felt the same way). Of the chronic patients, 54.4% thought that euthanasia was justified in consenting terminal patients (in comparison with 74.2% of the healthy pupils who felt the same way; P < 0.01). This may be explained by the feeling of total dependency of chronic patients upon medication and treatment. On the other hand, they may be opposed to euthanasia because of their own personal hope that a cure would be found for their severe and chronic condition. Both groups studied believed that physicians should always consider the subjective suffering of the patient and his family, as well as the short and long term prognosis when deciding about therapy.
1999
Rights
Article information provided for research and reference use only. PedPalASCNET does not hold any rights over the resource listed here. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).
Type
Journal Article
Citation List Month
Backlog
URL Address
Citation
Brook U, “The attitude of young adults with chronic disease or handicaps towards enforced treatment and euthanasia,” Pediatric Palliative Care Library, accessed February 9, 2025, https://pedpalascnetlibrary.omeka.net/items/show/12214.