title: Physician-assisted death. Opinions of Mexican medical students and residents.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To explore opinions of young residents and medical students on physician-assisted death (PAD).
  
  
  METHODS
  A questionnaire was answered by 140 residents at the beginning of their residency and 99 third- or fourth-year medical students (46 attended religiously administered medical schools [RAMS] and 53 lay-administered medical schools [LAMS]). Main questions were agreement with PAD, therapy withdrawal (TW) and personalized PAD (PPAD) on whether participants themselves would seek help to die.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were no differences of acceptance between residents and students but LAMS students had significantly higher agreement than RAMS students for PAD (68 vs. 33%), TW (79 vs. 39%) and PPAD (57 vs. 48%). LAMS students were also more willing to agree to a physician prescribe/inject a lethal drug, even if PAD were not legalized. However, legality was also an important issue, i.e., 25-58% of those unsure or opposed to PAD would reverse the decision if PAD were legalized, and 42-54% of those unwilling to TW would also reverse if written consent of the patient existed. Overall acceptance of residents and students was significantly higher than our previous study in nearly 1,000 older physicians (50 vs. 39% for PAD and 58 vs. 48% for TW).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  PAD and TW acceptability seems to be increasing in Mexico, probably as a result of evolving social attitudes that appeared to be counteracted by a more conservative upbringing at home in our young RAMS students.
authors: Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán, Mexico D.F., Mexico.
authors: Alvar
authors: A
authors: Loria
authors: Cynthia
authors: C
authors: Villarreal-Garza
authors: Erika
authors: E
authors: Sifuentes
authors: Ruben
authors: R
authors: Lisker
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D005065:Euthanasia; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D008800:Mexico; D012067:Religion; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017236:Suicide, Assisted; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Assisted death; Euthanasia; Medical students and residents; Mercy killing; Mexico