Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39060645›Full record

ArticleMonash bioethics review2024

Assisted dying in Swedish healthcare: a qualitative analysis of physicians' reasoning about physician-assisted suicide.

Anna Lindblad, Niklas Juth, Ingemar Engström, Mikael Sandlund, Niels Lynøe

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Monash bioethics review, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Taking the Right to Die Seriously.Medicine, health care, and philosophy · 2026
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Anna LindbladKarolinska Institute: Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
Niklas JuthKarolinska Institute: Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
Ingemar EngströmKarolinska Institute: Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
Mikael SandlundKarolinska Institute: Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
Niels LynøeKarolinska Institute: Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. niels.lynoe@ki.se.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2978-3331

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

To explore Swedish physicians' arguments and values for and against physician-assisted suicide (PAS) extracted from the free-text comments in a postal survey. A random selection of approximately 240 physicians from each of the following specialties: general practice, geriatrics, internal medicine, oncology, surgery and psychiatry. All 123 palliative care physicians in Sweden. A qualitative content analysis of free-text comments in a postal questionnaire commissioned by the Swedish Medical Society in collaboration with the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. The total response rate was 59.2%. Of the 933 respondents, 1107 comments were provided. The free-text comments entailed both normative and factual arguments for and against PAS. The analysis resulted in two main categories: (1) "Safe implementation of PAS is unachievable" (with subcategories "Criteria of PAS difficult to fulfil" and "PAS puts societal norms and values at risk") and (2) "The role of PAS in healthcare" (with subcategories "No medical need for PAS", "PAS is not a task for physicians", "No ethical difference to other end-of-life decisions" and "PAS is in the patient's best interest"). The respondents brought up well-known arguments from academic and public debate on the subject. Comments from physicians against PAS were more often emotionally charged and used devices like dysphemisms and slippery-slope arguments.

Indexed as

Attitude of Health PersonnelPhysiciansSuicide, AssistedFemaleHumansMalePalliative CareQualitative ResearchSurveys and QuestionnairesSwedenTerminal CareAutonomy principleDysphemismPhysician assisted suicidePhysician attitudePrescribing lethal drugsPrimum non nocereSlippery-slope arguments

Identifiers

PMID39060645
PMCPMC11369034

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.