Religion and its relationship to end of life decisions: an opinion survey of the general population
Keywords:
End-of-life decisions, assisted suicide, euthanasia, death with dignity, religionAbstract
The Catholic Church condemns assisted suicide and euthanasia, but is against therapeutic obstinacy, that is, prolonging the pain and suffering of the terminally ill. Changes can now be seen in the way Christians think about end-of-life decisions. An observational, descriptive, cross-sectional quantitative study was carried out. An opinion survey was applied to 802 people from the general population with national representation; the margin of error was +/-3.46% with a confidence level of 95%. The main results show that 45.3% of Christians fully agree that the terminally ill will have the right to request death, 35.2% agree with assisted suicide, 73.9% agree to legalize euthanasia. The opinion of both Christians and people without religion shows a favorable tendency towards medically assisted death. These findings may indicate that people agree with a death with dignity, that is, without pain or suffering.
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