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. 2015 Jan 22:16:6.
doi: 10.1186/1472-6939-16-6.

Psychosocial determinants of physicians' intention to practice euthanasia in palliative care

Mireille Lavoie  1   2 , Gaston Godin  3 , Lydi-Anne Vézina-Im  4 , Danielle Blondeau  5 , Isabelle Martineau  6 , Louis Roy  7
Affiliations

Psychosocial determinants of physicians' intention to practice euthanasia in palliative care

Mireille Lavoie et al. BMC Med Ethics. .

Abstract

Background: Euthanasia remains controversial in Canada and an issue of debate among physicians. Most studies have explored the opinion of health professionals regarding its legalization, but have not investigated their intentions when faced with performing euthanasia. These studies are also considered atheoretical. The purposes of the present study were to fill this gap in the literature by identifying the psychosocial determinants of physicians' intention to practice euthanasia in palliative care and verifying whether respecting the patient's autonomy is important for physicians.

Methods: A validated anonymous questionnaire based on an extended version of the Theory of Planned Behavior was mailed to a random sample of 445 physicians from the province of Quebec, Canada.

Results: The response rate was 38.3% and the mean score for intention was 3.94 ± 2.17 (range: 1 to 7). The determinants of intention among physicians were: knowing patients' wishes (OR = 10.77; 95%CI: 1.33-86.88), perceived behavioral control-physicians' evaluation of their ability to adopt a given behavior-(OR = 4.35; 95%CI: 1.44-13.15), moral norm-the appropriateness of adopting a given behavior according to one's personal and moral values-(OR = 3.22; 95%CI: 1.29-8.00) and cognitive attitude-factual consequences of the adoption of a given behavior-(OR = 3.16; 95%CI: 1.20-8.35). This model correctly classified 98.8% of physicians. Specific beliefs that might discriminate physicians according to their level of intention were also identified. For instance, physicians' moral norm was related to the ethical principle of beneficence.

Conclusions: Overall, physicians have weak intentions to practice euthanasia in palliative care. Nevertheless, respecting patients' final wishes concerning euthanasia seems to be of particular importance to them and greatly affects their motivation to perform euthanasia.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Theoretical framework: Extended version of the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, [15]). Note. The circles represent variables added to the Theory of Planned Behavior. The dotted line indicates that perceived behavioral control can predict behavior when the context is less volitional.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Flow of participants.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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Pre-publication history
    1. The pre-publication history for this paper can be accessed here: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6939/16/6/prepub

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