Attitudes among NHS doctors to requests for euthanasia.
OBJECTIVE
To explore NHS doctors' attitudes to competent patients' requests for euthanasia and to estimate the proportion of doctors who have taken active steps to hasten a patient's death.


METHODS
Anonymous postal questionnaire, with no possibility of follow up. The survey was conducted from December 1992 to March 1993.


METHODS
All (221) general practitioners and 203 hospital consultants in one area of England.


RESULTS
273 doctors responded to a question on whether a patient had ever asked them to hasten death. Of these, 163 had been asked to; 124 of these had been asked to take active steps to hasten death; 38 of 119 (32%) of these had complied with such a request (95% confidence interval 23% to 40%). This proportion represented 12% of all those who returned a completed questionnaire and 9% of all those who had been sent a questionnaire (95% confidence interval 6.3% to 11.7%). A larger proportion of the respondents (142/307 (46%)), however, would consider taking active steps to bring about the death of a patient if it was legal to do so.


CONCLUSIONS
Many doctors face difficult decisions about euthanasia. For the benefit of both patients and doctors euthanasia should be discussed more openly.
Department of Anatomy, Cambridge University.
B J
BJ
Ward
P A
PA
Tate
D016223:Advance Directives; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003253:Consultants / Q000523:psychology; D004739:England; D005065:Euthanasia; D028601:Euthanasia, Active; D033101:Euthanasia, Active, Voluntary; D005066:Euthanasia, Passive; D006801:Humans; D038622:Internationality; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital / Q000523:psychology*; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D010821:Physicians, Family / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D028761:Withholding Treatment