Colombian people's positions regarding physician-assisted suicide

Abstract

The views on the acceptability of physician-assisted suicide of lay people in a Latin American country, Colombia, have been examined. In July 2019–January 2020, 134 lay people in Bogota judged the acceptability of physician-assisted suicide in 48 realistic scenarios composed of all combinations of four factors: (a) the patient's age, (b) the level of incurability of the illness, (c) the type of suffering, and (d) the patient's request for physician-assisted suicide. In all scenarios, the patients were women receiving the best possible care. The ratings were subjected to cluster analysis and analyses of variance. Three qualitatively different positions were found: Never Acceptable (13% of the sample), Depends on the Patient's Request (77%), and Always Acceptable (10%). The only important factor in increasing acceptability among people not systematically opposed was the patient's request to have her life ended. The young age of some patients did not affect participants’ positions. These empirical findings suggest that most Colombian lay people are not categorically for or against physician-assisted suicide, but judge its degree of acceptability as a function of patients’ requests and other circumstances.