Acceptance of Conditional Suicide and Euthanasia among Adult Americans

Abstract

Analysis of the attitudes of a 1977 cross-sectional sample of 1,530 American adults concerning euthanasia and suicide indicates that sex, age, and education are significant variables. Males, those who are younger and those who are better educated, are more likely to approve of euthanasia and suicide when a person has an incurable disease. Religious affiliation was not an important variable, although those who were frequent church-service attenders or who were high on religiosity were highly likely to reject euthanasia and suicide.

Suicide Acceptability is Related to Suicide Planning in U.S. Adolescents and Young Adults

“…Findings prior to the 1990s indicating that U.S. Whites were significantly more likely to be accepting of suicidal behavior no longer hold true (Agnew, 1998; Johnson, Fitch, Alston, & McIntosh, 1980). Our results provide evidence of growing similarities between adolescents and young adults from various racial‐ethnic groups on the risk factors for suicidal behavior.…”

The Approval of Suicide: A Social‐Psychological Model

“…For example, suicide is negatively related to education (in most industrial societies) and positively related to age (Lester, 1987b, pp. 55-56), but suicide approval is positively related to education and negatively related to age (Finlay, 1985;Johnson, Fitch, Alston, & McIntosh, 1980;Sawyer & Sobal, 1987;Singh, 1979;Singh, Williams, & Ryther, 1986;Stack et al, 1994). So while the literature on suicide and related phenomena is certainly relevant, it should not be assumed that the determinants of suicide and the approval of suicide are identical.…”

“…The research on suicide approval, however, has largely neglected the argument that such approval may be a function of strain and coping. Only a few scattered measures of strain and coping have been examined, such as life satisfaction, depression, and self-esteem (see Johnson et al, 1980;Lester, McCabe, & Cameron, 1991Sawyer & Sobal, 1987;Stack, 1996aStack, , 1996bStack & Wasserman, 1992;Stack et al, 1994;Stillion, McDowell, & May, 1984;Stillion, McDowell, Smith, & McCoy, 1986). We need research that examines a broad range of stressors, including interpersonal loss and conflict, financial and work problems, health problems, and stressful life events (see Agnew, 1992, for a typology of strains or stressors that draws on several literatures).…”

“…In certain cases, individuals may be taught beliefs that directly condemn or (less commonly) approve of suicide. Most religious groups in the United States, for example, condemn suicide (see Domino, 1985;Stack, 1983, 19921, and much research indicates that suicide approval is related to religious denomination, religious fundamentalism, self-reported religiosity, belief in a supreme being, and frequency of church attendance (Best & Kirk, 1982;Domino & Miller, 1992;Domino, Cohen, & Gonzalez, 1981;Finlay, 1985;Hoelter, 1979;Johnson et al, 1980;Minear & Brush, 1980-1981Singh, 1979;Singh et al, 1986;Stack & Wasserman, 1995;Stillion, McDowell, & May, 1984;Stillion, McDowell, & Shamblin, 1984). There is, however, a need for a multivariate analysis employing a broad range of religion variables and a nationally representative sample, so that we can determine which religion variables are most consequential for suicide approval.…”

Religiosity, coping, and suicidality within the religious Zionist community of Israela thematic qualitative analysis

“…Researchers have begun to raise the possibility that it is not religion itself which functions as a defence against suicidal inclinations, but specific elements which are functions of religion and religious behaviour. Included here are factors which are directly related to religion such as religiosity (for example, see Johnson, Fitch, Alston, & McIntosh, 1980), or conversely factors which are not necessarily directly related to religion such as social support or a feeling of communal belonging (see, for example, Pescosolido & Georgianna, 1989;Stack & Wasserman, 1992). Several of these post-Durkheimian researchers have suggested that religion encourages a process of social networking which tends to increase the level of social support and thus reduce the suicide potential.…”