Table 3. Free responses answers of physicians who were asked to explain why they thought PAS should be legal or decriminalized but would be unwilling or unlikely to perform the practice. “PAS” is an abbreviation for physician-assisted suicide. “AID” is an abbreviation for aid-in-dying.
| % | |
| Lack of training/expertise | 47 |
| Spiritual/religious teachings | 11 |
| Supporting patient choice | 8 |
| Legal implications/hurdles | 7 |
| Ethical/moral opposition to the practice of PAS | 5 |
| Inappropriateness (relative lack of indication) | 5 |
| Inherent severity of PAS | 4 |
| Inadequate safeguardsA | 1 |
| “Great subtleties and greater responsibility involved in performing PAS/AID”A | 1 |
| “I am afraid patient may have scary face when dying”A | 1 |
| “[I] would favor small [number of] physicians involved to endure expertise in assessing appropriateness of PAS rather than general medical practitioners uniformly authorized to do so.”A | 1 |
AAnswer given by only one physician