Citation

Titterington VB, Rivolta PM, Schraufnagel S. Sociol. Spectr. 2013; 33(4): 358-373.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Mid-South Sociological Association, Publisher Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/02732173.2013.732893

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Legislation allowing for some form of death prior to it naturally occurring presently exists in very few industrial democracies. This article explores what large-scale economic and social factors may be associated with the legality of right-do-die measures, namely, a nation's health care expenditures, the old-age dependency ratio, religious pluralism, and homicide and suicide rates. Using data from several sources, we find an association among these factors and right-to-die legislation. Four of the six countries with recent experience of legalized physician-aided death ranked in the top 50% of countries on our combined measure of the five factors under examination. Implications of this study and suggestions for future research of this timely issue are discussed. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Language: en