Hernández-Arriaga J L, Morales-Estrada A, Cortés Gallo G
Centro de Investigaciones en Bioética, Instituto de Investigaciones Médicas, Facultad de Medicina de León, Universidad de Guanajuato, México.
Rev Invest Clin. 1997 Nov-Dec;49(6):497-500.
To explore the opinion of physicians about euthanasia and the treatment of dying patients.
A comparative survey.
We interviewed 38 family physicians (FP), 38 specialty physicians (SP) and 38 medical students (MS). The survey had 30 items, five of them about experience with terminal patients which were not used for the students.
Descriptive statistics and chi 2 or Fisher test to compare proportions between groups.
One hundred and two (89%) of the interviewed had a correct concept of euthanasia; 105 (92%) thought that life is holy and untouchable; 29 (25%) agreed there are persons more valuable than others, and four (4%) consider that some should die in certain situations. In relation to patients with brain death, 79 (69%) believed they should not receive futile treatment, but 42 (37%) said they should be attended until cardiac arrest occurred. All agreed with the need of the patients to receive comfort and peace, but only 49/76 (64%) of the physicians and 28 (74%) of the students were in favor of sending dying patients to their home. Nine FP (23%) and 14 SP (36%) stated that in many occasions they lacked elements to solve ethical dilemmas. Thirty six (32%) agreed with the use of passive euthanasia and 21 (18%) with active euthanasia; the latter was more frequent among students. Nine FP (24%) and 13 SP (34%) said they had exceeded therapy sometimes and 23 (61%) of the FP and 19 (50%) of the SP considered they had stopped treatment too early in some cases. We found no differences in regard to euthanasia between physicians and students (chi 2 = 0.32, p = 0.71) nor between the physicians with frequent vs occasional contact with terminal patients (Fisher = 0.13).
A third of the physicians agreed with some form of euthanasia but this frequency is smaller than that in other countries.
探讨医生对安乐死及临终患者治疗的看法。
一项比较性调查。
我们采访了38名家庭医生（FP）、38名专科医生（SP）和38名医学生（MS）。该调查有30个项目，其中5个关于临终患者的经历，学生未使用这些项目。
采用描述性统计以及卡方检验或费舍尔检验来比较组间比例。
102名（89%）受访者对安乐死有正确概念；105名（92%）认为生命是神圣不可侵犯的；29名（25%）同意有些人比其他人更有价值，4名（4%）认为在某些情况下有些人应该死亡。对于脑死亡患者，79名（69%）认为他们不应接受无效治疗，但42名（37%）表示应给予照料直至心脏骤停。所有人都认同患者需要获得舒适与安宁，但只有49/76（64%）的医生和28名（74%）的学生赞成将临终患者送回家中。9名家庭医生（23%）和14名专科医生（36%）表示在很多情况下他们缺乏解决伦理困境的要素。36名（32%）同意使用被动安乐死，21名（18%）同意使用主动安乐死；后者在学生中更为常见。9名家庭医生（24%）和13名专科医生（34%）表示他们有时过度治疗，23名（61%）家庭医生和19名（50%）专科医生认为他们在某些情况下过早停止治疗。我们发现医生与学生在安乐死问题上没有差异（卡方 = 0.32，p = 0.71），与临终患者有频繁接触和偶尔接触的医生之间也没有差异（费舍尔 = 0.13）。
三分之一的医生同意某种形式的安乐死，但这一比例低于其他国家。
