Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

CiteULike is a free service for managing and discovering scholarly references - click here to get started.

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Journal of Disability Policy Studies
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Gill, C. J.
Right arrow Articles by Voss, L. A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Views of Disabled People Regarding Legalized Assisted Suicide Before and After a Balanced Informational Presentation

Carol J. Gill

University of Illinois at Chicago

Larry A. Voss

University of Illinois at Chicago

A questionnaire on views regarding legalized assisted suicide was administered to 29 individuals with disabilities (12 participants with various disabilities; 17 participants with multiple sclerosis) before and after their exposure to a "pro" versus "con" informational presentation focusing on disability and assisted suicide. Results indicated that participants who expressed neutrality before the presentation were more likely than participants who had a predetermined position (either opposing or supporting legalization) to change their responses from pretest to posttest. Changes in views, when they occurred, tended toward opposition to legalized assisted suicide. Following the presentations, participants were fairly evenly divided in their endorsement versus opposition to legalized assisted suicide for terminally ill people. Most were opposed, however, to the legalization of assisted suicide for persons with incurable disabilities. Race/ethnicity and gender of participant were important factors, in that women, African Americans, and Latinos were least likely to support assisted suicide. The majority of participants indicated that legalized assisted suicide could lead to involuntary deaths and that safeguards would not prevent abuse. It was concluded that balanced disability-relevant information had a mild effect on attitudes in this study, and that differing levels of knowledge may account for some of the differences in views held by disabled people regarding legalized assisted suicide.

Journal of Disability Policy Studies, Vol. 16, No. 1, 6-15 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/10442073050160010201
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?