Factors influencing decisions to terminate life

Abstract

The present study attempted to identify situations that would lead subjects to endorse euthanasia when no implicit assumption about the inevitability of death was made. Participants in the study were 54 males and 47 females enrolled in introductory psychology courses at the University of California, Los Angeles. Subjects indicated how likely they would be to endorse euthanasia in specific hypothetical situations for themselves and for each of their parents. When a factor analysis was conducted on the self situations, four factors were identified: (1) physical condition and pain; (2) external sanction, financial hardship, and emotional stress; (3) mental alertness; and (4) lowered expectation of recovery. A factor analysis was also conducted on the parents’ situations and four slightly different factors were obtained. The results indicate that different decisional criteria are used for self than for parents. Also, the decision to terminate another's life appears to involve the consideration of more factors than the decision to terminate one's own life. Neither sex nor religious affiliation differences were found to be related to the endorsement of euthanasia. However, a significant relationship was found between endorsement of euthanasia and low scores on a religiosity measure when subjects were divided into low and high scorers.