SynthesisBMJ open2017
Understanding patients' experiences of the wish to hasten death: an updated and expanded systematic review and meta-ethnography.
Synthesis in BMJ open, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 55 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
55 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Meaning in Life in Palliative Cancer Care: Psychosocial and Existential Outcomes-A Systematic Review.Journal of palliative care · 2026Pooled it
- Embodied decisions unfolding over time: a meta-ethnography systematic review of people with cancer's reasons for delaying or declining end-of-life care.BMC palliative care · 2024Pooled it
- [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
- Pooled it
- The involvement of family in the Dutch practice of euthanasia and physician assisted suicide: a systematic mixed studies review.BMC medical ethics · 2019Pooled it
- Assumptions and moral understanding of the wish to hasten death: a philosophical review of qualitative studies.Medicine, health care, and philosophy · 2018Pooled it
- "I live my own life": relationship between will to live and wish to die in nursing home residents and their opinions about actions to promote their will to live.BMC palliative care · 2026Article
- Beyond the surface: Exploring differing aspects of wishes to hasten death in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.Palliative & supportive care · 2026Article
- Understanding the desire for hastened death in terminal cancer: Implications for whole-person palliative care.Palliative & supportive care · 2026Article
- 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
- Criteria for referral to a hospital palliative care team in a cancer setting: a Delphi study of oncologists.BMC palliative care · 2026Article
- "Quality of life matters to me more than life, itself": A qualitative exploration of older adults' values and preferences on controlling the time of death.Death studies · 2026Article
- Observational
- Attitudes towards euthanasia and assisted suicide: a cross-sectional study among physicians in Estonia.BMJ open · 2025Article
- ["Assisted Suicide"-A Case Report on Assisted Suicide in the Context of Mental Illnesses].Neuropsychiatrie : Klinik, Diagnostik, Therapie und Rehabilitation : Organ der Gesellschaft Osterreichischer Nervenarzte und Psychiater · 2025Article
- Article
- Family caregivers' role in dignity: A qualitative study can we change the title to : Dignity in Serious Illness: A Qualitative Exploration of Family Caregivers' Contributions in low middle-income country.Palliative & supportive care · 2025Article
- Assisted Suicide in Austria: Nurses' Understanding of Patients' Requests and the Role of Patient Symptoms.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- SAHD-10: Development and initial validation of a short version of the Schedule of Attitudes Toward Hastened Death based on a large multinational sample.Palliative & supportive care · 2025Article
- Views and experiences on writing certificates for assisted dying: interviews with Swedish physicians.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesPatients with advanced disease sometimes express a wish to hasten death (WTHD). In 2012, we published a systematic review and meta-ethnography of qualitative studies examining the experience and meaning of this phenomenon. Since then, new studies eligible for inclusion have been reported, including in Europe, a region not previously featured, and specifically in countries with different legal frameworks for euthanasia and assisted suicide. The aim of the present study was to update our previous review by including new research and to conduct a new analysis of available data on this topic.
settingEligible studies originated from Australia, Canada, China, Germany, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Thailand and USA.
participantsStudies of patients with life-threatening conditions that had expressed the WTHD.
designThe search strategy combined subject terms with free-text searching of PubMed MEDLINE, Web of Science, CINAHL and PsycInfo. The qualitative synthesis followed the methodology described by Noblit and Hare, using the 'adding to and revising the original' model for updating a meta-ethnography, proposed by France
results14 studies involving 255 participants with life-threatening illnesses were identified. Five themes emerged from the analysis: suffering (overarching theme), reasons for and meanings and functions of the WTHD and the experience of a timeline towards dying and death. In the context of advanced disease, the WTHD emerges as a reaction to physical, psychological, social and existential suffering, all of which impacts on the patient's sense of self, of dignity and meaning in life.
conclusionsThe WTHD can hold different meanings for each individual-serving functions other than to communicate a genuine wish to die. Understanding the reasons for, and meanings and functions of, the WTHD is crucial for drawing up and implementing care plans to meet the needs of individual patients.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.