Question

What are genetic factors/reasons that a patient might choose to request physician assisted suicide?

Answer 1

Physican Assisted Suicide:

Patients in this study engaged in PAS after a deliberative and thoughtful process. These motivating issues point to the importance of a broad approach in responding to a patient's request for PAS. The factors that motivate PAS can serve as an outline of issues to explore with patients about the far-reaching effects of illness, including the quality of the dying experience. The factors also identify challenges for quality palliative care: assessing patients holistically, conducting repeated assessments of patients' concerns over time, and tailoring care accordingly.

reasons patient choose to request a Physician Assisted sucided:

• Illness-related experiences
  • Feeling weak, tired, and uncomfortable 24 (69%)
  • Loss of function 23 (66%)
  • Pain or unacceptable side effects of pain medication 14 (40%)
• Threats to sense of self
  • Loss of sense of self 22 (63%)
  • Desire for control 21 (60%)
  • Long-standing beliefs in favor of hastened death 5 (14%)
• Fears about the future
  • Fears about future quality of life and dying 21 (60%)
  • Negative past experiences with dying 17 (49%)
  • Fear of being a burden on others 3 (9%)."
• Clincal Scenarios:
• • According to the hospice nurses, the most important reasons for requesting assistance with suicide, among patients who received prescriptions for lethal medications, were a desire to control the circumstances of death, a desire to die at home, the belief that continuing to live was pointless, and being ready to die. Depression and other psychiatric disorders, lack of social support, and concern about being a financial drain were, according to nurses, relatively unimportant. Seventy-seven percent of the nurses reported that patients who received prescriptions for lethal medications were more fearful of loss of control over the circumstances of death than were other hospice patients, whereas 8 percent reported that such patients were less fearful than other hospice patients. Sixty-two percent of the nurses said that patients who received prescriptions for lethal medications were more likely to be concerned about loss of independence than were other hospice patients, whereas 9 percent said that such patients were less concerned about loss of independence than were other hospice patients.