Department of Community Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Quebec.
Research Centre on Aging, Centre intégré universitaire de santé et de services sociaux de l'Estrie - Centre hospitalier universitaire de Sherbrooke (CHUS), Sherbrooke, Quebec.
Can J Aging. 2022 Mar;41(1):135-142. doi: 10.1017/S0714980821000088. Epub 2021 May 31.
The federal and Quebec governments are both considering extending medical aid/assistance in dying (MAID) to non-competent patients who would have requested MAID prior to losing capacity. In 2016-2017, we surveyed 136 Quebec physicians (response rate: 25.5%) on their attitudes towards extending MAID to such patients. Complementing our published findings, we herein identify demographic and practice characteristics that distinguish physicians who reported being open to extending MAID to non-competent patients with dementia, or willing to administer MAID themselves should it be legal, from those who were not. We found that physicians who were older, had stronger religious beliefs, were trained in palliative care, practiced in a teaching hospital, and had not received assisted dying requests in the year preceding the survey held less favourable attitudes towards MAID for non-competent patients with dementia. These findings will inform current deliberations as to whether assistance in dying should be extended to non-competent patients in some circumstances.
联邦和魁北克政府都在考虑将医疗协助自杀（MAID）扩大到那些在丧失能力之前就已经要求 MAID 的非有行为能力的患者。2016-2017 年，我们调查了 136 名魁北克医生（回应率：25.5%），了解他们对将 MAID 扩大到此类患者的态度。除了我们已发表的研究结果，我们还在此确定了区分那些表示愿意将 MAID 扩大到患有痴呆症的非有行为能力患者或愿意在法律允许的情况下自行实施 MAID 的医生与那些不愿意的医生的人口统计学和实践特征。我们发现，年龄较大、宗教信仰较强、接受过姑息治疗培训、在教学医院工作、并且在调查前一年没有收到协助死亡请求的医生对患有痴呆症的非有行为能力患者的 MAID 持有不太有利的态度。这些发现将为当前关于在某些情况下是否应将协助死亡扩大到非有行为能力患者的审议提供信息。
