The Attitude of Medical Students of Babol University of Medical Sciences towards Euthanasia

Euthanasia is one of the important topics in the philosophy of bioethics, the right to life of a sick person. The question arises whether the doctor can end his life with compassion, based on the request of a patient who is suffering from a severe illness and does not have the hope of recovering. The aim of this study was to investigate the attitude of medical students of Babol University of Medical Sciences Towards Death from symopathy.

In this cross-sectional study, 113 medical students of Babol University of Medical Sciences from2017 to 2018 were studied. The obtained data in this study were collected in the questionnaire containing 20 questions on euthanasia (AES). Data were analyzed by Chi-square statistical method using SPSS 18 software.

The results of this study showed that 35 (31%) of the respondents had a positive attitude and 78 (69%) had a negative attitude toward euthanasia. The mean of total attitude to euthanasia was 67.45 ± 4.84. Chi-square test showed that the relationship between the attitude of death from sympathy and age, gender, specialized period and specialized fields was not significant at the significance level of 0.05.

The results of this study showed that a high percentage of medical students had a negative attitude toward euthanasia, but a significant percentage also agreed that this issue. Regarding the dignity of pious jurisprudential and religious law, it is suggested to be aware of this issue in medical studentschr('39') education courses and to carefully plan euthanasia phenomena in future educational plans for medical and nursing students.