Attitude towards physician-assisted suicide among German doctors. A representative survey of the medical district association of Würzburg

The widespread legalization of "physician assisted suicide" (PAS) in The Netherlands and comparable tendencies in other European countries have given rise to discussions of this topic in Germany. This questionnaire was undertaken because of the dearth of previous informative studies in Germany. Among all registered practicing doctors in the medical district of Würzburg (n = 1821) a randomly selected group of 150 (males and females) was asked to participate in a personal interview-enquiry about active and passive euthanasia. 93 (62%, 32% women, 61% men) agreed: 44.1% were doctors working in a hospital, 45.2% worked in their own practice, the others worked elsewhere or (3) were retired. All specialties and medical activities were represented. About 40% were general practitioners or worked in internal medicine. 81.7% of the group were against active PAS. All rejected it for non-moribund patients. The results of this study differ from similar enquiries in other countries in demonstrating a relatively strong rejection of active assistance in patient-suicide. Those German specialists who would most likely be confronted with this problem (e.g. neurologists, intensivists, anaesthetists, oncologists) tended towards a greater readiness to agree to physician-assisted suicide. A dialogue between doctors in different specialties is an urgent requirement and should be intensively pursued.