A descriptive study was used to examine attitudes of 21 physicians and 19 administrators on physician-assisted suicide. Throughout the literature, it has been reported that physician-assisted suicide is not supported by the majority of health care professionals in the United States.;The results of this study indicate both groups disagree with physician-assisted suicide except under certain circumstances. Two-thirds of physicians participated in withdrawal of treatment with the explicit instructions of the patients, Significant findings were in two areas: First, the physicians agreed that physicians should not be liable for withdrawal of life support from a terminally ill patient when the patient's and family's preferences are unknown, while administrators tended to disagree. Second, physicians agreed that managed care has forced health care providers to reduce treatment for elderly while most administrators were undecided. Ambiguity in responses to some questions was an indication of an overall indecisiveness regarding end-of-life issues.
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