ArticleBMC palliative care2014
What a wish to die can mean: reasons, meanings and functions of wishes to die, reported from 30 qualitative case studies of terminally ill cancer patients in palliative care.
Article in BMC palliative care, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
37 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 131 citations in OpenAlex.
- [Depression, anxiety, delirium and desire to die in palliative care : Recommendations of the S3 guideline on palliative care for patients with incurable cancer].Der Nervenarzt · 2020Guideline
- Assumptions and moral understanding of the wish to hasten death: a philosophical review of qualitative studies.Medicine, health care, and philosophy · 2018Pooled it
- Understanding patients' experiences of the wish to hasten death: an updated and expanded systematic review and meta-ethnography.BMJ open · 2017Pooled it
- Exploring the underlying structural mechanisms and whole-person perspectives on the desire for hastened death in patients with terminal cancer: A qualitative study.Palliative & supportive care · 2026Article
- Critical Medical Ethics as an Approach to the Debate About Assisted Suicide by the Example of Germany.Bioethics · 2026Article
- Understanding death wishes in later life: a narrative review.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Review
- Wish to die and healthcare use in older people: cross-sectional findings from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA).Journal of public health (Berlin, Germany) · 2025Article
- Testing the predictions of the interpersonal-psychological theory of suicide in a sample of female cancer patients.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2025Article
- End-of-life decisions and ethics on the big screen: reflecting narratives of 'a life fully lived'.Medicine, health care, and philosophy · 2025Article
- Article
- Development and validation of a nomogram for predicting suicide risk factors in thyroid cancer patients following diagnosis: a population-based retrospective study.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2025Article
- "It's like crystal gazing": The Lived Experience of Anticipating End-of-Life Choices in Older Adults and Their Close Ones.The Gerontologist · 2024Article
- A bioethical perspective on the meanings behind a wish to hasten death: a meta-ethnographic review.BMC medical ethics · 2024Review
- The state of transience, and its influence on the wish to die of advanced disease patients: insights from a qualitative phenomenological study.BMC palliative care · 2024Article
- Outcome of Surgery as Part of Palliative Care of Patients with Symptomatic Advanced or Metastatic Extra-Abdominal High-Grade Soft Tissue Sarcoma.Palliative medicine reports · 2023Article
- Medical Assistance in Dying in Oncology Patients: A Canadian Academic Hospital's Experience.Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.) · 2022Article
- Lifelong versus not lifelong death wishes in older adults without severe illness: a cross-sectional survey.BMC geriatrics · 2022Article
- Control in patients with advanced cancer: an interpretative phenomenological study.BMC palliative care · 2022Article
- Validation of the Greek Version of Euthanasia Attitude Scale (EAS) in Greek Medical Doctors.Nursing reports (Pavia, Italy) · 2022Article
- Understanding why patients request euthanasia when it is illegal: a qualitative study in palliative care units on the personal and practical impact of euthanasia requests.Palliative care and social practice · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundDespite research efforts over recent decades to deepen our understanding of why some terminally ill patients express a wish to die (WTD), there is broad consensus that we need more detailed knowledge about the factors that might influence such a wish. The objective of this study is to explore the different possible motivations and explanations of patients who express or experience a WTD.
methodsThirty terminally ill cancer patients, their caregivers and relatives; from a hospice, a palliative care ward in the oncology department of a general hospital, and an ambulatory palliative care service; 116 semi-structured qualitative interviews analysed using a complementary grounded theory and interpretive phenomenological analysis approach.
resultsTHREE DIMENSIONS WERE FOUND TO BE CRUCIAL FOR UNDERSTANDING AND ANALYSING WTD STATEMENTS: intentions, motivations and social interactions. This article analyses the motivations of WTD statements. Motivations can further be differentiated into (1) reasons, (2) meanings and (3) functions. Reasons are the factors that patients understand as causing them to have or accounting for having a WTD. These reasons can be ordered along the bio-psycho-socio-spiritual model. Meanings describe the broader explanatory frameworks, which explain what this wish means to a patient. Meanings are larger narratives that reflect personal values and moral understandings and cannot be reduced to reasons. Functions describe the effects of the WTD on patients themselves or on others, conscious or unconscious, that might be part of the motivation for a WTD. Nine typical 'meanings' were identified in the study, including "to let death put an end to severe suffering", "to move on to another reality", and - more frequently- "to spare others from the burden of oneself".
conclusionsThe distinction between reasons, meanings and functions allows for a more detailed understanding of the motivation for the WTD statements of cancer patients in palliative care situations. Better understanding is crucial to support patients and their relatives in end-of-life care and decision making. More research is required to investigate the types of motivations for WTD statements, also among non-cancer patients.
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