Surveys on attitudes towards legalisation of euthanasia: importance of question phrasing

Journal of Medical Ethics 30 (6):521-523 (2004)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Aim: To explore whether the phrasing of the questions and the response alternatives would influence the answers to questions about legalisation of euthanasia.Methods: Results were compared from two different surveys in populations with similar characteristics. The alternatives “positive”, “negative”, and “don’t know” were replaced with an explanatory text, “no legal sanction”, four types of legal sanctions, and no possibility to answer “don’t know” . Four undergraduate student groups answered.Results: In the first questionnaire 43% accepted euthanasia , 14% did not, and 43% answered “don’t know”. Two per cent of the respondents declined to answer. In comparison with previous surveys on attitudes to euthanasia the proportion of “don’t know” was large. The results of the second questionnaire , showed that 38% favoured “no legal prosecution” . However, 62% opted for different kinds of legal sanctions, and two of four groups expressed significantly different views in the two surveys. A proportion of 10% declined to answer the second questionnaire.Conclusion: An introduction of an explanatory text and a wider range of response alternatives produced differences between the results of the two surveys conducted

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Euthanasia in china: A report.Shi Pdau - 1991 - Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 16 (2).
Learning to do no harm.Grant R. Gillett - 1993 - Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 18 (3):253-268.
Voluntariness, suffering and euthanasia.Martin Van Hees - 2003 - Philosophical Explorations 6 (1):50 – 64.
Euthanasia And Religious Belief.Tziporah Kasachkoff - 1991 - International Journal of Applied Philosophy 6 (1):37-44.
Not in My Name.Jacqueline A. Laing - 2012 - New Law Journal 162:81.
Machiavellianism in indian management.K. Cyriac & R. Dharmaraj - 1994 - Journal of Business Ethics 13 (4):281 - 286.

Analytics

Added to PP
2010-08-24

Downloads
55 (#259,775)

6 months
2 (#668,348)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?