Malpas Phillipa J, Mitchell Kay, Johnson Malcolm H
Department of Psychological Medicine, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand.
N Z Med J. 2012 Jul 29;125(1358):9-19.
To explore the reasons some healthy older New Zealanders support medical practices that hasten death.
Recruitment was from the Voluntary Euthanasia Society of New Zealand (VESNZ), an organisation that supports legal medical assistance in dying. All participants were members of VESNZ. 106 individuals returned signed consent forms. All interviews took place in the participant's home. After 11 interviews, saturation of information was reached and interviewing was stopped.
An important finding of this study indicates that healthy, older individuals who support medical practices that hasten death have serious concerns about their (perceived) future incapacities and dependency on others, as well as their fears around becoming a burden. The study also found that fear of future pain was not a dominant reason to support medical assistance to die.
Our study provides confirmation that the fear of being a burden on others is not only felt by those facing their imminent mortality, but also by older individuals who are currently healthy and living independently in the community. We also conclude that for some older people their prior experiences with health care and dying may be a strong factor in influencing and supporting medical practices that hasten death at the end of life. We believe it is crucial to understand the reasons why people support medical practices that hasten death well in advance of such practices ever becoming legally available.
探讨一些健康的新西兰老年人支持加速死亡的医疗行为的原因。
从新西兰自愿安乐死协会（VESNZ）招募参与者，该组织支持合法的医疗协助死亡。所有参与者均为VESNZ成员。106人返回了签署的同意书。所有访谈均在参与者家中进行。进行了11次访谈后，信息达到饱和，访谈停止。
本研究的一项重要发现表明，支持加速死亡的医疗行为的健康老年人严重担忧其（感知到的）未来无行为能力和对他人的依赖，以及他们对成为负担的恐惧。研究还发现，对未来疼痛的恐惧并非支持医疗协助死亡的主要原因。
我们的研究证实，不仅面临即将到来的死亡的人会担心成为他人的负担，目前健康且独立生活在社区中的老年人也会有这种担忧。我们还得出结论，对于一些老年人来说，他们以前的医疗保健和临终经历可能是影响和支持生命末期加速死亡的医疗行为的一个重要因素。我们认为，在加速死亡的医疗行为合法化之前，提前了解人们支持此类行为的原因至关重要。
