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. 2025 Jan 23;26(1):9.
doi: 10.1186/s12910-025-01167-8.

Students' attitudes toward euthanasia and abortion: a cross-cultural study in three Mediterranean countries

Ivana Tutić Grokša  1 , Ana Depope  1 , Tijana Trako Poljak  2 , Igor Eterović  1 , Toni Buterin  3   4 , Robert Doričić  1   5 , Mariana Gensabella  6 , Maria Laura Giacobello  6 , Josip Guć  7 , Eleni Kalokairinou  8 , Željko Kaluđerović  9 , Iva Rinčić  1   5 , Ivana Zagorac  2 , Miltiadis Vantsos  8 , Amir Muzur  1   5
Affiliations

Students' attitudes toward euthanasia and abortion: a cross-cultural study in three Mediterranean countries

Ivana Tutić Grokša et al. BMC Med Ethics. .

Abstract

Introduction: Abortion and euthanasia are still one of the greatest bioethical challenges. Previous studies have shown that there are differences in attitudes towards these issues depending on socio-demographic characteristics and socio-cultural environment (country of residence). As part of the scientific research project EuroBioMed, we compared the attitudes of students from three Mediterranean countries towards abortion and euthanasia and examined them from the perspective of Mediterranean bioethics.

Methods: A pen-to-paper survey was conducted on a convenient sample of students (N = 1097) from five universities and four fields of study (Medicine, Law, Theology and Philosophy) in Croatia, Greece and Italy to investigate their attitudes towards abortion and euthanasia. Three hypotheses were tested using t-test and ANOVA for differences in attitudes according to country, field of study, year of study, gender, religiosity, political orientation, financial status, and size of place of residence.

Results: While attitudes towards abortion were not statistically significantly different between students from different countries, the analysis showed that students from Italy had more liberal attitudes towards euthanasia. Theology students had more conservative attitudes towards both abortion and euthanasia, while there were no differences between the other groups. Women, final year students, non-religious and politically left-oriented students had more liberal attitudes.

Conclusion: The results provided an insight into students' attitudes towards abortion and euthanasia. Knowledge of the attitudes of these future experts can be valuable for the discussion of these issues. These results also provided a basis for a better understanding of the construct of Mediterranean bioethics.

Keywords: Abortion; Bioethics; Croatia; Euthanasia; Greece; Healthcare; Italy; Mediterranean bioethics; Public health; Questions about the beginning and end of life; Students.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: The research was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Ethics committee for Biomedical Research at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Rijeka on September 27, 2022 (class: 007–08/22 − 01/61, issue number: 2170-24-04-3/1-22-7). Implicit informed consent was obtained from all of the participants. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Attitudes towards abortion by country
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Attitudes towards euthanasia by country
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Attitudes towards abortion by field of study
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Attitudes towards euthanasia by field of study
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