ATTITUDES TOWARD ASSISTED SUICIDE AND EUTHANASIA AMONG PHYSICIANS IN SOUTH-CAROLINA AND WASHINGTON

Active euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide has been highlighted in the 1990s, yet little is known about physicians' attitudes toward t hese practices. We replicated a study of Washington physicians in Sout h Carolina to determine attitudes toward assisted suicide and euthanas ia. Questionnaires were mailed to 1,119 physicians in South Carolina; the Washington study had the same sample composition from 1,355 doctor s. Logistic regression was used to investigate the effects of gender a nd practice characteristics (independent variables) on attitudes towar d euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. Frequency distributions w ere computed to compare the South Carolina (54% response rate) and Was hington (69% response rate) data. Attitudes toward physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia of physicians in South Carolina and Washington are polarized Overall, physicians' attitudes in the two states were re markably similar.