Subjectivity on Abortion of Paramedic Student

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to build a bioethical foundation for Paramedic students by identifying and explaining the subjective types and structures of the students' perception on abortion using Q-methodology. Forty statements as a Q sample are selected from the literature and in-depth interview, and P-sample consists of twenty nine junior Paramedic students. The collected data is analyzed by using a QUANL program. The analysis identified three types of the paramedic students' perception on abortion: The fetus-oriented decision type, The mother-oriented active decision type(n=15), The Type(n=9),and mother-oriented passive decision type(n=5). The three factors all had eigenvalues greater than 1.0 and explained 61.3% of the variance in responses. Based on the result of this research, type 1 focuses on the importance of life, whereas other types seem to demonstrate a self-centered mindse that puts more importance on self than the fetus. Therefore, bioethics courses, especially ones that deal with abortion, are crucial to those paramedic students who handle the lives of others.