Attitudes toward palliative care, conceptions of euthanasia and opinions about its legalization among French physicians

We assume that actors of the professionalization process of palliative care make a special effort to demarcate it from euthanasia, and that such an effort has a significant impact on beliefs and attitudes toward euthanasia among the whole medical profession. We investigated concurrently attitudes toward palliative care, conceptions of euthanasia and opinion toward its legalization among a sample of 883 French general practitioners, oncologists and neurologists. We found four contrasted profiles of attitudes toward palliative care, which were closely correlated with being in touch with palliative care providers. Attitudes toward palliative care were closely correlated with beliefs about which medical practices should be labelled euthanasia, and these beliefs were in turn strongly associated with opinions toward euthanasia legalization. Our results suggest that the relationship between palliative care and euthanasia mixes semantic and strategic aspects, beyond cognitive and conative ones.