Euthanasia: a survey by the Swiss Association for Palliative Care

Since the Swiss Association for Palliative Care (SAPC) considers itself an important partner in the national debate on euthanasia, the Board decided to conduct a survey among its members. An anonymous questionnaire was sent to the 726 members of the SAPC, consisting of multiple choice questions on positions that might be adopted in different hypothetical scenarios and one open question about the rationale for the answers. The response rate achieved with one mailing was 55.6%. The proportions of the respondents who were opposed to different forms of euthanasia were, in ascending order: 56% opposed to physician-assisted suicide (PAS); 69% to direct active euthanasia (DAE); 75% to DAE for psychiatric patients; 84% to delegation of DAE in the case of incompetent patients; and 90% to life-terminating acts without explicit requests (LAWER). Almost 10% of the members reported personal experiences with PAS and different forms of DAE. The main decisional bases drawn on for the answers were ethical values and the clinical or personal experience of the respondents; however, the same categories of arguments were used both by those opposing and by those favouring DAE. There are important variations among the members of the SAPC in the debate on euthanasia. Individual autonomy seems to be an important underlying concept for the different positions; the categories of arguments cited by opponents and supporters of DAE did not differ.