Iranian Medical Students’ Attitude towards Euthanasia Moghadam Hakimeh Malaki1, Nakhaee Samaneh2, Talebi Maryam2,3, Amirabadizadeh Alireza2, Ataei Homeira2, Mehrpour Mahsa4,* 1Social Determinants of Health Research Center, Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Birjand, Iran 2Medical Toxicology and Drug Abuse Research Center (MTDRC), Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Birjand, Iran 3Student Research Committee, Birjand University of Medical Science, Birjand, Iran 4Department of Persian Medicine, School of Persian and Complementary Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran *Corresponding author: Mahsa Mehrpour MD, Department of Persian Medicine, School of Persian and Complementary Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical sciences, Mashhad, Iran
Online published on 27 November, 2019. Abstract Background Euthanasia or good death is one of the challenging issues in medical ethics that has become particularly important given advances in medical sciences and facilities that extend patients’ longevity. Because physicians’ viewpoints towards ethical issues can be different in different cultures, this study was conducted to investigate medical students’ viewpoints regarding euthanasia in Birjand University of Medical Sciences in 2016. Method In this Survey study, 152 medical students at different levels were enrolled by stratified-random sampling. Euthanasia Attitude Questionnaire consisting of four dimensions, Active Voluntary Euthanasia, Active Involuntary Euthanasia, Inactive Euthanasia, and Conducting Euthanasia was completed by participants. The three answers to attitude items were “Yes” (scored 2), “No” (scored 0), and “I don't know” (scored 1). The content validity index (CVI) and content validity Ratio (CVR) were 0.81 and 0.89, respectively. Data were analyzed by logistic regression at P < 0.05 in SPSS 18. Results Results demonstrated that 30.9% of medical students agree with voluntary active euthanasia, 38.8% involuntary active euthanasia, and 44.7%, with inactive euthanasia. With increasing age, likelihood of agreeing with voluntary active euthanasia decreased significantly. Other variables were not significantly associated with agreement with different types of euthanasia. Conclusion Based on the results of this study, less than half of respondents agreed with euthanasia and the highest agreement was with inactive euthanasia. Regarding the role of religious beliefs in attitude towards euthanasia, it is recommended to study this variable in future studies. Top Keywords Euthanasia, Medical student, Attitude, Iran. Top |