Polls

August 2021

YouGov survey on doctor-assisted suicide in the UK

Three quarters of Britons support doctor-assisted suicide. But just one in three MPs say the same. The public and MPs are also out of step when it comes to allowing assisted suicide for non-terminally ill patients suffering from painful incurable diseases.

Summary with tables (Link)

July 2021

Trends in Swedish physicians’ attitudes towards physician-assisted suicide: a cross-sectional study

This study by Niels Lynøe et al reveals a shift towards a more accepting attitude concerning physician-assisted suicide (PAS) among physicians in Sweden. Only a minority of the respondents stated that they were against PAS, and a considerable proportion reported being prepared to prescribe the needed drugs for patient self-administration if PAS were legalized.

Article in the journal BMC Medical Ethics (Link)

February - October 2020

BMA Survey on Physician-Assisted Dying in the UK

In February 2020, the British Medical Association (BMA) carried out a survey of its members on physician-assisted dying for the first time. This was conducted by Kantar, an independent research organisation, on BMA’s behalf.

Nearly 29,000 members of the BMA responded, making it the largest ever survey of medical opinion on physician-assisted dying in the UK.

When asked for their personal views on law change, 50% of doctors were in favour of law change on assisted dying with 39% opposed and 11% undecided.

Summary of the BMA’s survey results (Link)

Full Research Report (Link)

September 2019

More than Half of Jersey Doctors Favour Assisted Dying

Following the recent public opinion poll on assisted dying, a new poll has been carried out, again by 4insight, addressed to the island's doctors.

Comparing the two surveys, the proportion of doctors in favour is somewhat below that of the general public, but it is still a clear majority. For patients with a terminal illness, 60% of our doctors felt that assistance to die was sometimes or always acceptable, and that they would be willing to render that assistance, given professional and legal protection.

Doctors Research Report for End of Life Choices Jersey (pdf)

July 2019

End of Life Choices Jersey (Link) commissioned an independent survey from 4insight to gather Islanders views on end-of-life choices in Jersey. The organisation End of Life Choices Jersey was set up in response to the wish of many Islanders to determine how and when they end their own life, without incriminating those assisting them.

Michael Talibard of End of Life Choices Jersey says:

“Assisted dying, as we know, is a complex issue—you cannot ask people to declare themselves simply for or against—it always 'depends'.
Therefore we were pleased that My Death My Decision (Link) allowed us to mimic their well designed questionnaire, in which nuanced reactions were sought to different situations. So across four scenarios, respondents were asked if they would consider it acceptable for a doctor to assist each type of patient to die—always, sometimes, rarely or never.
The report, by professional Jersey firm 4insight, is attached: do read it in full. These results were remarkable, and showed a level of support a little greater even than that in the UK. There are different ways of summarising this, but adding together the 'always' and the 'sometimes', one sees figures of between 76% and 89% in favour. This gives us great encouragement."

Research Report for End of Life Choices Jersey (pdf)

March 2019

Commissioned by My Death My Decision, the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) polled 2,500 participants and found 93% of the public considers assisted dying acceptable in at least some situations, even if rarely, when the person is suffering from an incurable illness that will eventually cause their death. 88% also say that they think it is acceptable for someone suffering unbearably, from a non-life threatening condition, to receive assistance to die, in at least some situations. Just as many consider it acceptable in some cases of dementia for someone to receive life-ending assistance, provided they had consented before having lost their mental capacity.

Summary with table (link)

March 2019

Commissioned by Dignity in Dying, the research agency Populus (now Yonder) surveyed the views on assisted dying of 5,695 adults (aged 18+) in England, Wales and Scotland. The poll found that support for assisted dying has increased from 82% since our last survey in 2015, and that support is consistently strong across demographics including gender, age, social grade and region.

Summary with links to tables (link)

December 2018

On a daily basis, physicians confront difficult decisions regarding patient care. Medscape surveyed more than 5200 physicians in over 29 specialities to find out how they feel about the key issues they wrestle with.

Medscape Ethics Report 2018: Life, Death, and Pain (link)

May 2018

A broad majority of Americans, 72%, continue to believe that doctors should be legally allowed, at a patient's and a family's request, to end a terminally ill patient's life using painless means. Currently, 65% of Americans think doctors should be legally allowed to assist a patient in dying by suicide.

Poll by Gallup (link)

March 2018

A study by Rafael Serrano del Rosal and Adrián Heredia Cerro analysing a survey on the Spanish population’s attitude towards a self-determined end of life according to socio-demographic characteristics. The paper was published in "Revista Española de Investigaciones Sociológicas".

Study: Spanish Attitudes Towards Euthanasia and Physician-assisted suicide (link)

April 2017

Views and Experiences with End-of-Life Medical Care in the USA

Report by KFF Kaiser Family Foundation (link)

August 2015

Survey Sampling International did a poll conducted by IGS Institute of Governmental Studies of the University of California, Berkeley: It found that Californians overwhelmingly support medical aid in dying for terminally ill people. 76 % of respondents supported that idea, including 82 % of Democrats, 79 % of independents and 67 % of Republicans.

Summary / Results of the poll (link)

June 2015

Doctor-assisted dying widely supported
The British magazine The Economist and Ipsos MORI surveyed opinions on doctor-assisted dying in 15 countries on whether doctors should be allowed to help patients to die, and if so, how and when. Overall, the survey found strong support across America, Western Europe and Australia for allowing doctors to prescribe lethal drugs to patients with terminal diseases as well as patients who are in great physical suffering but not close to death.

Results of the poll (link)

August 2014

Dying with Dignity Canada commissioned Ipsos Reid to conduct a public perceptions study around the issue of assisted dying. Topics such as opinions and favourability of the issue, different scenarios involving legalization, and general attitudes towards different aspects of the issue were covered.

Results / Executive Summary (PDF)

Infographic of key findings (PDF)

October – November 2012

Australian public opinion poll conducted by Newspoll on behalf of YourLastRight.com

This research covered three main subject areas:
1) To assess ongoing headline support for legalisation of assisted dying, and the characteristics of supporters and opponents
2) To determine how personally important assisted dying legalisation is (or is not) to Australians, compared with other key policy issues currently under debate or already dealt with by politicians
3) To establish what if any changes in voter behaviour would occur for general election candidates who support and for those who oppose assisted dying law reform

Analysis of the research (link / pdf)

September - October 2012

Self-determination in the view of Europeans: The Swiss Medical Lawyers Association (SMLA) asked the renowned research institute ISOPUBLIC to carry out an extensive opinion poll, which analysed the position of the population in twelve European States on the issue of self-determination at the end of life

Results of the opinion poll (Link / PDF)

June 2012

Support for doctor-assisted suicide in the UK

YouGov / Sunday Times Survey (Link)

19 May 2011

“There is a sharp divergence between public opinion and the law, with the majority of people supporting the legalisation of assisted dying in certain circumstances.”

Comment by the by the National Centre for Social Research (Link)

February 2010, July 2010, March 2011 and March 2013

Living Wills (advance directives), doctor’s assistance to die for terminally ill and old age rational suicide in the view of Britons: Polls carried out by ICM Direct and Kindle Research, commissioned by the Society For Old Age Rational Suicide (SOARS)

Summary of findings and polling results (Link)

2005

Assisted dying and decision making at the end of life. The 2005 British Social Attitudes survey by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) included a set of questions about attitudes to assisted dying and end of life care.

key findings (link / pdf)