AN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE OF ACTIVE EUTHANASIA - ATTITUDES OF NURSES IN 7 COUNTRIES

This exploratory study examines the ethical justification that cancer care and dementia care nurses gave for active voluntary euthanasia. A convenient sample of 319 nurses working in seven countries was intervi ewed using a structured interview guide. The great majority of the nur ses could not ethically justify active voluntary euthanasia. Even if t he law changed, only 96 of the total sample viewed active voluntary eu thanasia as ethical. For those nurses who could ethically justify acti ve voluntary euthanasia, the majority did so because of the patient's suffering.