A STUDY ON THE RIGHT OF SELF-DETERMINING AND QUOLITY OF LIFE IN TERMINAL CARE

—Based on the Difference in Consciousness for Euthanasia and/or Death with Dignity between Medical Students and Biological Students—

Abstract

Recently, the right of self-determining and quality of life (QOL) have been considered to be important in terminal care. We should investigate euthanasia and/or death with dignity in relation to the right of self-determining and QOL in terminal care. To date there are no reports which discuss the difference in consciousness for euthanasia and death with dignity between medical students and biology students to our knowledge. In this paper, we studied the right of self-determinination and QOL in terminal care by examining the difference in consciousness for euthanasia and/or death with dignity between medical students and biology students. The results of an opinion poll for euthanasia and death with dignity were compared between medical students and biology students. The data obtained were statistically analyzed regarding the students' sex and field of specialty. The similarities and differences were examined with the chi-squared test. When considering euthanasia, medical students held the opinion of “disagree” more frequently than biology students. The reason why both students agreed with euthanasia and/or death with dignity for their families was due to the respect for the right of self-determining. When considering death with dignity, female students held the opinion of “agree” more frequently than male students. Both medical and biology students preferred death with dignity to euthanasia. Most medical students desired legislation for euthanasia and/or death with dignity though biology students did not always desire it. Around thirty percent of female students desired legislation for death with dignity only. From the results obtained, the conclusion seems to be that medical students want to perform passive euthanasia or death with dignity according to the law enacted to improve QOL for the patients with their self-determination. A previous study by another group concluded that the aim of medicine should be to save life, rather than to shorten it. The present study seems to indicate that the right of self-determining and QOL have been recently considered to be important even in terminal care.