Gender, pain, and doctor involvement: High school student attitudes towarddoctor-assisted suicide

The present study concentrates on the attitudes of high school students tow ard active doctor-assisted suicide as described in hypothetical doctor-pati ent scenarios, orthogonally manipulating doctor's reaction to patient's wis hes to end his/her life (whether discussed, accepted or encouraged), presen ce of patient's physical pain, presence of patient's emotional pain, and th e gender of the hypothetical patient. Doctor-assisted suicides thoroughly d iscussed with the patient are judged to be more moral, acceptable, and "leg al" than assisted suicides that are simply accepted by the doctor or active ly encouraged by him. Significantly, this is not a distinction that is rele vant in the eyes of the law. Further, the presence of both physical and emo tional pain on the part of the patient make the patient death more acceptab le in the eyes of high school students. This latter effect is striking, giv en the result of the Wooddell and Kaplan (1999-2000) study showing that pat ient depression tends to weaken acceptability of death. Finally, respondent s, both male and female, tend to view deaths of patients of the opposite ge nder as more acceptable than patients of the same gender.