Ahmed Waqas, Noor Fatima, Haneen Wajid Lodhi, Waqar Shareef, Maham Ilahi.
Association of attitudes towards euthanasia with religiosity, emotional empathy and exposure to the terminally ill.
J Pak Psych Soc Jan ;12(1):43-6.

Objectives: To analyze the association of attitudes of medical students towards euthanasia with religiosity, emotional empathy and exposure to the terminally ill. Background: In recent years, there has been a persistent complicated argument over moral issues associated with Euthanasia. The difficulty is caused due to the role played by the medical practitioners when it comes to mercy killing. Euthanasia is termed active when a person is killed intentionally by performing an action such as by giving a lethal dose of injection and termed passive when intentionally causing death by removal of necessary life support. Design: Cross-sectional study Place and duration of study: This cross sectional study was undertaken at CMH Lahore medical and dental college from January 1st to February 1st, 2015. Subjects and methods: Medical students enrolled in first to fourth year of MBBS were included in this study through convenience sampling. The self-administered questionnaire consisted of three sections: demographics form, Euthanasia Attitude Scale, Multidimensional emotional empathy scale and OrthodoxyScale of Funk’s Survey of Attitudes toward Religion and Philosophy of Life. Data were analyzed in SPSS v. 20. Results: Multiple linear regression revealed that attitudes towards euthanasia are significantly associated with religiosity, year of study and exposure to critically ill patients (P < .05). While, emotional empathy was an insignificant predictor of EAS (P > .05) Conclusion: Attitudes towards euthanasia are significantly associated with religiosity, year of study and exposure to critically ill patients. It is a need of the hour to educate the general community as well as the medical fraternity regarding bioethical aspects of Euthanasia.

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