Sammanfattning
BACKGROUND: Assisted dying is illegal in Norway, but a majority of the population is in favour of legalisation. Doctors’ attitudes to assisted dying were last investigated in 1993. Have their attitudes changed?
MATERIAL AND METHOD: Two surveys undertaken among representative panel of practising doctors of the Institute for Studies of the Medical Profession in 2014 and 2016, respectively, included questions about assisted dying. The responses were analysed with the aid of descriptive statistics and logistic regression.
RESULTS: The response rates were 75.0 % (2014) and 73.1 % (2016). The majority was opposed to legalisation of assisted dying. In the 2016 survey, 9.1 % of the respondents reported to ‘strongly agree’ or ‘partially agree’ that physician-assisted suicide should be made legal for persons who suffer from ‘a fatal disease with short remaining life expectancy’. Younger and non-religious respondents took a positive view of legalisation more frequently than others. In the 2014 survey, 8.6 % of the respondents reported that they would be willing to provide physician-assisted suicide should it be made legal.
INTERPRETATION:As in 1993, a majority of Norwegian doctors were opposed to assisted dying, but now there seem to be more doctors than previously in favour of legalisation in certain cases. Only very few would be willing to provide assisted dying themselves in the event that it should it become permissible.