The acceptability among French lay persons of ending the lives of damaged newborns.
BACKGROUND
Lay persons' judgements of the acceptability of the not uncommon practice of ending the life of a damaged neonate have not been studied.


METHODS
A convenience sample of 1635 lay people in France rated how acceptable it would be for a physician to end a neonate's life-by withholding care, withdrawing care, or active euthanasia-in 54 scenarios in which the neonate was diagnosed either with perinatal asphyxia or a genetic abnormality. The scenarios were all combinations of four factors: three levels of maturity or immaturity, three levels of severity of the health problem, three levels of parents' preference concerning prolonging care and two levels of decision-making (with or without consulting the other caregivers).


METHODS
Analyses of variance of the participants' responses were performed to determine the importance of each factor; the interactions among factors, with methods of ending life and with other patient characteristics; and the differences between asphyxia and genetic abnormality. A cluster analysis was performed to look for groups with different patterns of responses.


RESULTS
Lay people assigned most importance to the parents' request and to the severity of the problem. Except for a small group (12%) always opposed to ending life, they used a simple additive-type rule in integrating the information.


CONCLUSIONS
Most of this sample of French lay people are not categorically for or against ending the life of a damaged neonate, but judge its degree of acceptability by adding up those factors that seem most salient to them.
Teisseyre
N
N
Department of Psychology, Université du Mirail, Toulouse, France.
Duarte dos Reis
I
I
Sorum
P C
PC
Mullet
E
E
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001293:Attitude to Death; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D003657:Decision Making / Q000941:ethics*; D028601:Euthanasia, Active / Q000941:ethics* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007232:Infant, Newborn, Diseases / Q000523:psychology*; D008017:Life Expectancy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D028761:Withholding Treatment / Q000941:ethics*; D055815:Young Adult