A Comparative Study on Permissiveness Toward Euthanasia
A Comparative Study on Permissiveness Toward Euthanasia
复制标题
DOI：
10.1093/poq/nfp074
复制
发表时间：
2010-03-01
影响因子：
3.4
通讯作者：
Jaspers, Eva
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Verbakel, Ellen;Jaspers, Eva
本研究通过评估个人和国家之间的差异，利用安乐死的反对者和支持者在公开辩论中使用的四个主要论点，探讨了对安乐死批准的解释。我们对33个国家的数据进行了多层次分析，这些数据来自1999/2000年欧洲价值观研究和2000年世界价值观调查；我们用具体国家的信息丰富了这些数据。首先，我们的研究结果支持基于宗教论点的假设：有宗教信仰的人和生活在宗教环境中的人更强烈地反对安乐死。此外，新教徒和生活在新教国家的人对安乐死的态度比天主教徒和生活在天主教国家的人更有利。其次，我们从滑坡理论中发现了对假设的支持：由于害怕安乐死会被滥用，弱势群体和生活在医疗保健系统反应较低的国家的人更反对安乐死。第三，正如自治假说所预测的那样，受过高等教育的人和高度重视自治的人，以及生活在一个对自治的依恋程度高于平均水平的国家的人，对安乐死的态度更有利。第四，虽然尊严死亡的论点预测，在个人或国家环境中目睹无法忍受的痛苦的人更倾向于安乐死，但我们的结果显示只有微弱的支持。此外，跨层次互动测试表明，在某种程度上，国家背景能够减少社会中不同群体对安乐死的反应差异。
This study explores explanations for the approval of euthanasia by assessing differences among individuals and countries, using four main arguments used by opponents and proponents in the public debate over euthanasia. We performed multilevel analysis on data from thirty-three countries, obtained from the European Values Study 1999/2000 and the World Values Survey 2000; we enriched these data with country-specific information. First, our results supported the hypothesis based on the religion argument: religious people and people living in a religious context are more strongly opposed to euthanasia. In addition, Protestants and people living in Protestant countries have more favorable attitudes toward euthanasia than do Catholics and people living in Catholic countries. Second, we found support for the hypothesis derived from the slippery slope argument: fear that euthanasia will be abused resulted in people from vulnerable groups and people living in countries with low-responsive health care systems being more opposed to euthanasia. Third, as the autonomy-hypothesis predicted, highly educated people and people who highly value autonomy as well as people living in a country with a stronger than average attachment to autonomy show a more favorable attitude toward euthanasia. Fourth, while the death with dignity argument predicts that people who witness unbearable suffering in their personal or national environment are more favorable toward euthanasia, our results show only weak support. Furthermore, cross-level interaction tests showed that national contexts are, to some extent, able to decrease the differences between groups in society in terms of their response to euthanasia.