Kitchener B A
School of Nursing, University of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory.
Aust N Z J Public Health. 1998 Apr;22(2):276-8. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-842x.1998.tb01190.x.
National public opinion polls show a large majority of Australians are in favour of active voluntary euthanasia (AVE). However, most members of the public have had only limited direct experience with dying people. For this reason, surveys of the opinions of medical practitioners and nurses on this issue are of great interest. The present study involved a postal survey in late 1996 of 2,000 randomly selected registered nurses from the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). The ACT has had extensive public debate about this issue. The questionnaire included some questions asked in earlier Australian surveys of the general public and health practitioners. Responses were received from 1218 nurses (61%). A majority of nurses who responded supported AVE as 'sometimes right', be it homicide by request (72%) or physician-assisted suicide (71%). A slightly smaller majority believed the law should be changed to allow homicide by request (69%) and physician-assisted suicide (67%). If AVE were legal, 66% of the nurses indicated they were willing to be involved in the procedure. Only 30% were willing to assist patients to give themselves the lethal dose, while 14% were willing to administer the lethal dose to the patient. Comparing these results with previous surveys, it appears that nurses are less in favour of AVE than the public, but more in favour than medical practitioners.
全国民意调查显示，绝大多数澳大利亚人支持积极的自愿安乐死（AVE）。然而，大多数公众对临终者的直接体验有限。因此，针对医生和护士对该问题看法的调查备受关注。本研究于1996年末对从澳大利亚首都直辖区（ACT）随机抽取的2000名注册护士进行了邮寄调查。ACT就该问题展开了广泛的公众辩论。问卷包含了澳大利亚早期针对普通公众和医疗从业者调查中提出的一些问题。共收到1218名护士的回复（回复率61%）。多数回复的护士支持将AVE视为“有时是正确的”，无论是应要求杀人（72%）还是医生协助自杀（71%）。稍少一些的多数人认为法律应修改以允许应要求杀人（69%）和医生协助自杀（67%）。如果AVE合法化，66%的护士表示愿意参与该程序。只有30%愿意协助患者自行服用致命剂量药物，而14%愿意给患者注射致命剂量药物。将这些结果与之前的调查相比，似乎护士比公众对AVE的支持度低，但比医生支持度高。
