An Analysis of Attitudes on Euthanasia between Residents and Judicial Apprentices

You, Jong Ho; Kwon, Oh Byung; Kim, Kyoung Kon; Kang, Hee Cheol; Son, Myung Se; Lee, Kyoung Whan

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Recently, the legal and ethical issues relative to euthanasia are becoming controversial in Korea. This study was designed to verify the differences of the attitudes on euthanasia between judicial apprentices and residents.
METHODS
The questionnaire was conducted on the 35th-group of the judicial apprentices on March 24, 2004, and on the residents from April 2 to May 22, 2004. The respondents were 636 in total consisting of 460 judicial apprentices and 176 residents.
RESULTS
Of the total 636 subjects, 373 (81.1%) of the judicial apprentices and 149 (84.7%) of residents agreed that allowing euthanasia is moral, without any significant difference (P>0.05). The number of residents was greater (59 people, 33.5%) than that of judicial apprentices (112 people, 24.4%) who agreed with active euthanasia (P<0.05). Among the total, 397 (86.3%) of the judicial apprentices and 160 (91.4%) of the residents answered that the law for euthanasia was necessary, without any significant difference (P>0.05). But, among these supporters, the respondents who agreed on active euthanasia were significantly different in number between judicial apprentices (n=93, 23.4%) and residents (n=54, 33.8%) (P<0.05).
CONCLUSION
This study did not find any significant differences between the two groups in the necessity of the law for euthanasia, but the rate of agreement on active euthanasia was higher in residents group than in judicial apprentices group.