Opiniões dos médicos portugueses sobre cenários de morte antecipada: Um estudo transversal

Abstract

Abstract Context: A growing number of countries has been legalizing the process of hastening death. At a time when a law that decriminalizes hastened death was passed in the Portuguese Parliament, the development of research related to decision making regarding this issue is of crucial importance. Objectives: This study seeks to evaluate whether the presentation of clinical vignettes changes the agreement with the practice of hastened death compared to general scenarios, in a sample of Portuguese doctors. Methods: A questionnaire was applied to physicians from all medical schools across the country to assess the agreement regarding the practice of hastened death. The questionnaire included 8 standard cases and 8 clinical vignettes framed under conditions defined by the law for the practice of hastened death. Differences were analyzed using the t-student test for paired samples. Results: There were statistically significant differences in 5 scenarios, with greater agreement concerning the clinical vignettes. The highest acceptance was found in the hastened death requests made by adults with terminal and incurable illness. There was a generalised lack of knowledge on the part of physicians regarding the existing bills in Portugal for decriminalizing hastened death. Conclusion: The presentation of clinical vignettes seems to favor the acceptance for the practice of hastened death, which may indicate that the identification of suffering in the patient will be one of the central reasons for the acceptance of hasten death by Portuguese doctors.