As to euthanasia, there are several ways of thinking in the United States. Such differences come out of the diversity of religion. According to the results from past General Social Survey, respondents who are secular are found to be support euthanasia more than those who are pious.
Moderate Protestants shows less support than secular people, but they are less opposed to euthanasia than conservative Protestants. Though Catholic Church has come out in firm opposition to physician-assisted suicide, they share the nearly same level of support as moderate Protestants.
The liberal protestants are the most supportive. They don’t affiliate with religious institutions so much, so their stance on euthanasia is similar to that of non-affiliates. Thus, religiosity is related to level of opposition towards euthanasia.
Monks of Theravada Buddhism can be expelled if they simply describe the miseries of life or the bliss of the after-life. Like these subjects are taboos for them.
Mahavira Varadhman, the founder of Jainism, plainly allows suicide.
In Hinduism, euthanasia is seen as murder. They think that any bad action happening in one life time will be reflected in the next. However, in case of vegetative state, and with no quality of life, they are allowed to choose whether they continue their life, or not.
Ethnicity is also related to stance on euthanasia. African-Americans are almost 3 times less likely to accept euthanasia than European-American. The main reason of this is attributed to the lower level of medical establishment. Researchers think that past history of medical abuses towards minorities have made this different way of thinking.
Some studies showed that there are differences in views between males and females. A recent Gallup Poll found that 84% of males supported euthanasia compared to 64% of females. One study found that African-American women are 2.37 times more likely to oppose to euthanasia than European-American. African-American men are 3.61 times more likely to oppose to euthanasia than European-American men.
"Euthanasia-Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Influence of various factors on opinion regarding euthanasia. 20 June 2007. 20 Jun 2007
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euthanasia>.
2 件のコメント:
Your posting was very interesting to me, Chiaki. I didn't know that more males than females in the U.S. were in favor of euthanasia and African-Americans were less favorable toward it than white Americans of European descent. The differing views that various religious groups have concerning euthanasia was also fascinating.
By the way, I noticed that you can find some podcasts that present recent news related to Dr. Kevorkian, America's so-called "doctor of death," at... podcasts about Dr. Kevorkian
Cheers,
Joseph D.
I knew that religions are really strict about this issue, as in some are for and some are against.
But I didn't know that ethnicity can affect if they are for or against it.
"The main reason of this is attributed to the lower level of medical establishment."
I thought this was an interesting fact because I can totally agree with what they are trying to say.
But I have a question.
Does this mean that some countries don't have enough money to have euthanasia such as the developing countries?
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