Psychiatry trainees' attitudes towards euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide

We investigated the attitudes towards Euthanasia (EUT) and Physician-Assisted Suicide (PAS) in a sample of Greek Psychiatry trainees (PT), (n=120, mean age 32.01±0.21, male 60.0%) and compared these to those of medical trainees of other specialties (OMT), i.e. internal medicine, surgery, intensive care (n=154, mean age 32.97±1.17, male 57.1%). Most of the responders were for the acceptance of EUT and PAS under some circumstances. More often PT answer "never" in the question regarding the permission to withdraw life-sustaining medical treatment to hasten death, if that requested by a terminally ill patient (p<0.001) and also more often answer "never" to the question regarding the permission to hasten the death of a patient if that is requested by family members (p<0.01). On the other hand OMT were more often for the acceptance of EUT (p<0.001) and more often expressed a positive view in the case allowing PAS in patients with incurable-terminal illness and low expected quality of life (p<0.001). According to the results of this study there is a need for special education of PT on end of life decisions. Also, it is important for educators to have understanding the views of the trainees since soon in the future, the new generation of physicians will have to make end of life decisions.