Attitudes of Respiratory Therapy Students Toward Legalization of Physician-Assisted Suicide

Abstract

Background: The American Medical Association states physician-assisted suicide (PAS) occurs when a physician facilitates a patient’s death by providing the necessary means and/or information to enable the patient to perform the life-ending act. Respiratory therapists (RTs) are essential members of the critical care team in the hospital. RTs are routinely exposed to hospitalized patients experiencing terminal illness and grappling with end-of-life issues; however, when compared to physicians and nurses they are less likely, along with respiratory therapy students, to be represented in the research literature of this topic. Our study’s null hypothesis is there is no preference for legalization of physician-assisted suicide based on the strength of religious faith.

Methods: Senior respiratory therapy students were asked to respond yes, no, or not sure regarding the legalization of PAS in all 50 U.S. states. In addition, the students completed a 10-question religiosity questionnaire and answered demographic questions, such as age, gender, race/ethnicity, and self-described strength of their religious faith. The religiosity questionnaire (RQ) assesses the strength of religious faith via a mean score; a mean score of 26 or higher indicates a high religious faith, and a mean score less than 26 indicates a low faith. The students responded if they had experienced a terminal interaction with a family member or close friend and the number of interactions with end-of-life events during their clinical rotations in the hospital. Descriptive statistics and mean analysis were completed on the demographic and survey data. The authors’ IRB gave approval (#6327) and the students provided voluntary informed consent to participate in this study.

Results: Forty-one participants completed this study. Descriptive statistics and mean analysis revealed the mean score for all participants on the RQ was 27.9. Mean RQ scores were higher for females compared to males. Mean RQ scores were highest for Christian/Catholic participants and lowest for Atheists and Pagans. Mean RQ scores were lowest for participants that had no end-of-life experiences during clinical rotations. There was no statistically significant difference (P > .05) in mean RQ scores for the legalization of PAS.

Conclusions: We fail to reject the null hypothesis. The strength of religious faith of the participants did not influence their preference for PAS.