Polls
October 2023
A survey by Island Global Research of more than 1,200 Isle of Man residents has found that 53% of respondents were strongly in favour of a change in the law to allow mentally competent, terminally ill residents the option of seeking assistance in their death, and 13% were somewhat in favour. In contrast 6% of people taking part were somewhat opposed with 26% strongly opposed to assisted dying.
Survey results (PDF)
Press coverage
September 2023
YouGov, Survey of Scottish adults: 77% of Scotland’s voters support a proposal of a bill to legalise assisted dying. People with disabilities support it by 79%.
Survey report (PDF)
Press article in “The Guardian”
July 2023
Ipsos MORI, Survey of UK adults aged 16-75: two-thirds of UK public support legalising assisted dying
Polling report (PDF)
Press article in “The Guardian”
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.
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
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 survey results
Full Research Report
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.
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 of results and link to full report
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
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.
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 (PDF)
April 2017
Views and Experiences with End-of-Life Medical Care in the USA
Report by KFF Kaiser Family Foundation
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.
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.
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
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 (PDF)
June 2012
Support for doctor-assisted suicide in the UK
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
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
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.