Public opinion polls

A note of warning! A distinction needs to be made between properly administered polls and those populist polls run, for example by the news media with an on-line poll. Voters are not a random cross section of the Australian community but a group of self selected individuals who may live anywhere in the world and whose only qualification is that they are able to access the internet. The most that can be said of these polls is that they provide the particular media organisation running the poll about its readership’s views. Perhaps they don’t even achieve this as this sort of poll is easily manipulated by any interest group who chooses to request its members to vote in the poll in a particular way. Little or no reliance should be placed on such polls.

Successive national and state opinion polls over the last three decades have consistently shown majority support for voluntary euthanasia. These polls have been administered to ensure the collection of random cross section of the population.
 

Public support for the legalisation of voluntary euthanasia-

2009 85% of Australians support legalisation (Auspoll)

2007 80% of Australians support the view that doctors should be allowed to provide a lethal dose to a patient with unrelievable suffering and with no hope of recovery (Newspoll)

2002 73 % Australians (NSW, Vic and South Australia) support (Morgan poll).

1995 78% Australians support (Morgan poll).

 

The medical profession and support for the legalisation of voluntary euthanasia

2008

  • 58% Victorian doctors support the legalisation of voluntary euthanasia
  • 62% indicated that where palliative measures will foreseeably shorten the patient’s life to some degree, this should not count as euthanasia. 
​          D A Neil, C A J Coady, J Thompson and H Kuhse,Journal of Medical Ethics 2007;33:721-725.

2001

  • 36.2% reported that they had given drugs in doses greater than was necessary to relieve symptoms with the intention of hastening death
  • 20.4% reported that they had given drugs with the intention of hastening death, but without the explicit request of the patient     
  • 1.9% reported assisting with a suicide
  • 4.2% reported having acceded to requests for voluntary euthanasia

Douglas C, Kerridge I, Rainbird K, McPhee J, Hancock L, Spigelman A. The intention to hasten death: a survey of attitudes and practices of surgeons in Australia Med J Aust 2001; 175 (683 Australian general surgeons)

1998

  • 53% approved of the Rights of the Terminally Act, which allowed active medical assistance in dying on request.

Steinberg MA, Najman JM, Cartwright CM, MacDonald SM, Williams GM End-of-life decision-making: community and medical practitioners’ perspectives Med J Aust 1997; 166: 131-134 (174 NT doctors)

1997

  • 1.8% of deaths were by VE or physician assisted suicide
  • 3.5% of deaths involved termination of the patient’s life without explicit request
  •  in 24.7% treatment was withheld or withdrawn with the intention to hasten death
  •  in 6.5% of deaths opioids were administered with at least the partial intent to hasten death.

Kuhse H, Singer P, Baume P, Clark M, Rickard M. End-of-life decisions in Australian medical practice  Med J Aust 1997; 166: 191-196 (1918 Australian doctors)

1997

  • 36% thought a doctor should be allowed by law to assist a terminally ill person to die.

Steinberg MA, Najman JM, Cartwright CM, MacDonald SM, Williams GM End-of-life decision-making: community and medical practitioners’ perspectives Med J Aust 1997; 166: 131-134 (259 Queensland doctors)

1996

  • 45% personally wished to have the option of voluntary euthanasia.
  • 56% would not be distressed if it were available to others
  • 68% believed that euthanasia can be an act of caring.
  • 45% did not believe that “present arrangements are adequate in delivering help to the dying."

Wilson I, Kay B, Steven I. General practitioners and euthanasia Aust Fam Phys 1997; 26: 399-401 (886 members of the RACGP)

1994

  • 89% thought a request to hasten death could be rational
  • 47% were in favour of legalization of voluntary euthanasia.

Stevens CA, Hassan R. Management of death, dying and euthanasia; attitudes and practices of medical practitioners in South Australia J. Medical Ethics 1994; 20: 41-46 (298 SA doctors)

1993

  • 59% thought actively hastening death on request was sometimes right
  • 96% thought such a request could be rational
  • 59% thought Netherlands practice should be allowed
  • 52% thought their professional organization should approve medically assisted dying.

Baume P, O’Malley E. Euthanasia: attitudes and practises of medical practitioners Med. J. Aust. 1994; 161: 137-144 (1268 NSW doctors)
 

I987

  • 62% answered yes to the question "Do you think it is sometimes right for a doctor to take active steps to bring about the death of a patient who has requested the doctor to do this?" (64% of AMA members polled said yes)
  • 93% thought such a request could be rational
  • 59% thought that a practice similar to that in the Netherlands should be allowed
  • 52% of AMA members thought that the AMA should change its stance on the issue.

Kuhse H, Singer P. Doctors’ practises and attitudes regarding voluntary euthanasia Med. J. Aust 1988, 148: 623-627 (869 Victorian doctors).

 

FURTHER READING:

  • D A Neil, C A J Coady, J Thompson and H Kuhse Victorian doctor's survey supports medically assisted dying in Journal of Medical Ethics 2007 33:721-725

  • 2007 Newspoll see http://www.dwdv.org.au/Docs/DWD%20Summary%20Newspoll%20Report%202007.pdf

  • Charles D Douglas, Ian H Kerridge, Katherine J Rainbird, John R McPhee,Lynne Hancock and Allan D Spigelman. The intention to hasten death: a survey of attitudes and practices of surgeons in Australia in MJA 2001; 175: 511-515

  • Helga Kuhse, Peter Singer, Peter Baume, Malcolm Clark and Maurice Rickard End-of-life decisions in Australian medical practice in MJA 1997; 166: 191