Attitudes of physicians towards different types of euthanasia in Kuwait

Abstract

Objective: Although in recent years the world has witnessed great advances in the medical field, much ambiguity still surrounds the issue of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide, with increasingly favorable attitudes among physicians around the world. In our study, we aimed to assess the attitudes of physicians in Kuwait towards different types of euthanasia and examine whether physicians' frequent encounters with terminally ill patients were associated with their approval. Subjects and Methods: We conducted a cross- sectional study on 464 physicians employed in government hospitals (6 general and 3 specialty hospitals). A self-administered questionnaire adapted from previous studies was used. Results: Of the physicians in our study, 43.9% reported that the Ministry of Health should legalize euthanasia under certain restricted conditions. In addition, 29.1% of our population was willing to perform euthanasia. After controlling for several characteristics in logistic regression analysis, approval of passive euthanasia was significantly associated with the following 2 factors: frequent exposure to terminally ill patients (AOR = 2.45) and obtention of the basic medical degree from Asia (AOR = 4.36) or North America/Europe (AOR = 3.24) compared to Kuwait. Male gender was significantly associated with willingness to perform euthanasia. Religion was the major reason for opposing euthanasia. Conclusion: The attitudes of physicians towards euthanasia are diverse, and therefore the Ministry of Health should provide guidelines for physicians dealing with situations where patients or their families request euthanasia.