Provoked Death at Request of the Person, Opinion of SPMI Associates

Abstract

The Portuguese Parliament recently approved the law that
“… regulates the special conditions in which medically assisted death is not punishable” and created a new concept for the Portuguese: death provoked at the request of the person. The diploma intends to rule the conditions for access to this procedure, namely the framework of admission, procedures and main players. Physicians are directly involved in this new medical act. It is necessary to know what they think and consider to be their information and training needs.

The Núcleo de Estudos de Bioética of the SPMI carried out an opinion survey among Portuguese internists on the clarity of the terms used in the law, their consistency with the rest of the legal and ethical system of the profession and on the training needs in this area.

About 42% of the respondents showed unavailability to get involved in this new medical act. The clinical conditions
susceptible to access to the procedure are not of clear meaning for more than 70% of the respondents, according to the terms defined in the law: “definitive injury of extreme gravity”, “serious or incurable injury” and “suffering of great intensity”. Less than 16% consider that Portugal offers good end-of-life care and that the request for death provoked at one's own request does not constitute a priority criterion for access to Palliative Care.

The present study carried out with Portuguese internists
identifies doubts, difficulties and reveals the opinions of respondents, often with opposing views. The collected data help to understand the problem and give clues for future investigations and developments.