title: Attitudes of belgian students of medicine, philosophy, and law toward euthanasia and the conditions for its acceptance.
abstract: Euthanasia is legal in Belgium if due care criteria are met, which is judged by committees including physicians, ethicists, and jurists. We examined whether students in these disciplines differ in how they judge euthanasia as an acceptable act. A cross-sectional, anonymous e-mail survey revealed that they have similar attitudes and accept its legalization. Therefore, joint decision-making of physicians, ethicists, and lawyers regarding euthanasia seems to have a common attitudinal base in Belgium. However, they differ to some extent regarding the conditions they put forward for euthanasia being acceptable. Philosophy of life (religion) was an independent predictor of these attitudes.
authors.affiliation: a End-of-Life Care Research Group , Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Ghent University , Brussels , Belgium.
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Roelands
authors.forename: Lieve
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Van den Block
authors.forename: Sylvie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Geurts
authors.forename: Luc
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Deliens
authors.forename: Joachim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cohen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001293:Attitude to Death; D001530:Belgium; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003643:Death; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D005065:Euthanasia / Q000941:ethics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D007603:Jurisprudence; D019369:Life; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010684:Philosophy; D010820:Physicians; D012068:Religion and Medicine; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires