[Qualitative research about euthanasia concept, between Spanish doctors]

The decriminalisation of euthanasia and assisted medical suicide has generated a continuous debate. The terminological confusion is one of the main difficulties in obtaining medical practice consensus. The objective of this study was to determine whether the terms of Euthanasia and physician assisted suicide are used with the same meaning by doctors in Extremadura (Spain).

A qualitative study was conducted using two focus groups in which doctors from different specialties who attended a large number of terminal patients participated. No other focus group was required due to saturation. The sessions were tape recorded and transcribed by two experts in qualitative methodology. Atlas.ti software was used for the analysis. We were advised by the "Health Care at the end of life" Group of the Organizacion Médica Colegial of Spain.

Terminological confusion was verified in: 1) The mixture of etymological, functional and social concepts, 2) the term Passive Euthanasia, 3) the association between euthanasia and physician assisted suicide, 4) the confusion with the equivalent "wish to hasten death", and 5) the difficulty of differentiating sedation with Euthanasia. There was consensus on some aspects: a) Full voluntariness, b) the condition of terminal illness, and c) the condition of unbearable symptoms.

Conceptual variability persists in relation to the concept of Euthanasia, and is particularly noticeable in the persistence of the concept of passive euthanasia. It would be desirable to achieve a common language to assign a precise meaning to these words to help doctors in their professional practice.