Pavel Prikhodko, Ph.D. Machine Learning
Euthanasia is illegal in most of the U.S., excluding a few states (Washington, Oregon, California and Vermont). According to 2015 statistics on Americans’ moral stances regarding doctor-assisted suicide, more than half (56 percent, to be precise) believe it is morally acceptable. In comparison, 37 percent of people stated that doctor-assisted suicide is morally wrong. About 4 percent of respondents said that their opinion depends on the specific situation, and 2 percent have no opinion at all.
Euthanasia legalization is a difficult topic for discussion in American society. Some people say that when a person has a disease that cannot be cured by any drugs doctors should be allowed to end the patient’s life at the patient’s request. About 70 percent of Americans, according to a survey published at Statista.com in 2013, thought that doctors should be allowed to end a patient’s life if the patient or their family requested it. In comparison, 27 percent of people stated that it should not be legal. Three percent of respondents held no opinion.
Let’s examine peoples’ moral stances by religious and ethnic background. In a case where the patient experiences a great deal of pain with no hope of improvement, 71 percent of White mainline Protestants stated that the patient had a moral right to suicide. Sixty-seven percent of White Catholics thought that a person had a right to suicide under the same circumstances. Hispanic Catholics held the third-highest percentage (56 percent), followed by Black Protestants at 42 percent.
Some respondents held a different opinion: a patient has a moral right to suicide only if they feel ready to die and that living is now a burden. The shares of White Protestants and White Catholics who thought this way were 37 percent and 47 percent respectively. About 33 percent of Hispanic Catholics said that suicide is acceptable in this case, compared to 26 percent of Black Protestants.
What about doctor-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients? In 2013, 44 percent of White adults disapproved of laws allowing physician-assisted suicide, while 53 percent approved. Thirty-two percent of Hispanic people approved of these laws, while 65 percent disapproved.
About Pavel Prikhodko
Pavel Prikhodko, Ph.D. Machine Learning
Pavel has worked for many years as a researcher and developer on a wide range of applications (varying from mechanics and manufacturing to social data, finance and advertising), building predictive systems and trying to find stories that data can tell.
In his free time, he enjoys being with his family.
Other posts by Pavel Prikhodko:
Suicide is tragic but your freedom. A right to have someone else kill you is definitely where I draw the line on your individual freedom. To ask physicians by law to be singled out for this assist with self murder is especially repugnant. Physicians should work for life and health of their patients. The law should enforce this as it does consumer safety.
If this chart is accurate, then it seems to me that among all of these groups approximately 17 to 28% think it’s OK for a patient to choose to die if the patient “Is an extremely heavy burden on the family. Isn’t that something we as a nation should talk about?