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A Report To Show Differing Attitudes To Euthanasia “Everyone’s right to life shall be protected by law. No one shall be deprived of his life intentionally save in the execution of a sentence of a court following his conviction of a crime for which the penalty is provided by law” quoted by the Secretary-General, Council of Europe, Strasbourg (p16 The unfinished debate on Euthanasia.) Background and Justification Literature Review An increasing number of research papers have shown, that there is a changing attitude in favour of euthanasia. (e.g. In 1987, the British Section of the World Federation of Doctors Who Respect Human Life, who do not agree with voluntary euthanasia because of their religious beliefs, carried out a MORI poll. Overall, 72% of those surveyed said that voluntary euthanasia should be made legal.) Euthanasia is defined in the oxford English dictionary as “The act or practice of ending the life of an individual suffering from a terminal illness or an incurable condition, as by lethal injection or the suspension of extraordinary medical treatment.” The modern debate on euthanasia started in 1873 when a discussion in the magazine the Fortnightly review, contained an article entitled ‘The New Cure for Incurables, inn which it showed support for Euthanasia. The Spectator criticised these proposals, which would restrict euthanasia to those able to ask for it, but would deny it to the worst sufferers, those who were too ill to make their request known. Media polls regularly record huge majorities of people who support legalising voluntary euthanasia for the incurably ill. In October 1997, out of nearly 3,000 people who took part in a Sun newspaper telephone opinion poll, an amazing 97% said terminally ill people should have the right to die with dignity. (Donnison.D ,Bryson.C, University of Glasgow, Euthanasia in British Social Attitudes. the 13th Report, edited by Roger Jowell and others. Dartmouth, 1996) Several investigators have found this situation to be realistic for their subjects. Surveys of public opinion are notoriously fickle, but in this area they have been remarkably consistent, both over time and as between themselves. Although the precise numbers have varied somewhat, nationwide polls have been unanimous in showing a majority to be in favour of legalised voluntary euthanasia, with highly respected sources showing support as high as 82% (British Social Attitudes Report, 1996). The strongest support (86%) was in the case of the individual who has an incurable illness leaving him dependent upon a life support machine, unable to make a decision about his own future - as in the case of a permanent coma. This outweighed even the support in cases of persons suffering from a terminal, painful and incurable illness (80%). (British Social Attitudes Report, 1996). Aims and Objectives Research has shown increasing percentages of people in favour of euthanasia, in this study I am attempting to identify qualitive data showing that this trend is still on the increase within the U.K. Investigative questions are questions that you need to answer in order to address satisfactorily each research question and to meet each objective (Cooper & Schindler, 1998). When considering the main aim of the project the following questions must be asked: 1) Under what circumstances do you think Euthanasia is acceptable? 2) Do you think it is moral for doctors to perform Euthanasia? 3) Should the family have the right to choose? Research Strategy The main objectives, which are derived from this research project, are to obtain what views people in Scarborough have on Euthanasia and whether they are for or against it. These results would then be passed onto the client, which in this case is Scarborough NHS Trust. These results could then be distributed nationally, in order for other Trusts to benefit from the findings. The main limitations on the study as defined by Graziano, 1993 are time, money, access to data and location. The study has a budget, which in turn will cause a restriction to time and access to data.
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