Euthanasia in Greece: Greek nurses’ involvement and beliefs

Attitudes of health care professionals, relatives of advanced cancer patients and public towards euthanasia and physician assisted suicide

“…In addition, other findings revealed that nurses in Greece hold a negative position on the performance of passive EUT and its legalization in our country [7].…”

“…Furthermore, subjects were asked for some issues that are illegal and probably may have been reluctant to respond freely. Furthermore, in most studies concerning opinions on ethical issues, the way that questions are worded can bias the results [7] which also might existed in our study too.…”

“…Debate concerns whether the right to ask for euthanasia is strictly personal and should involve only the terminally ill patient [7]. Due to the fact that there is little research concerning EUT and PAS in Greece and more specifically regarding health care professionals', lay people's and relatives' of terminally ill cancer patients opinions on these ethical issues, in the current study we aimed to explore these issues.…”

“…Active EUT refers to the direct administration of a lethal agent to the patient by another party with a merciful intent [3,[6][7][8]. This might involve the physician injecting intravenously a quick-acting sedative followed by a paralytic agent to halt respiration.…”

“…Active EUT may be voluntary (requested or agreed by the patient), involuntary (when the agreement of the patient could be obtained but is not), or nonvoluntary (in which the agreement of the subject cannot be obtained because of his or her physical or mental state, thus, the patient has offered no opinion) [6]. Additionally, passive euthanasia is defined as withholding medical treatment with the intention of causing the patient's death [7,8].…”