Grant: Operating Grant - Priority Announcement: Ethics

Euthanasia is still a controversial topic in Canada to this day, highlighting the clash between fundamental values and impassioned debates. Some groups are exercising more and more pressure to legalize its practice. Closely linked to the context of palliative care, euthanasia generates support which is far from unanimous among the health professionals taking care of persons at the end of life. The practice is criticized because it represents an act aimed at deliberately causing death, something which runs counter to the philosophy of palliative care. When supported, it is because it helps to relieve "inhuman" suffering or to support the sick person's autonomy. Thus, if euthanasia were to be legalized, what would that mean for the autonomy of the caregivers requested to apply it? Current researches still provides little explanation of their intentions when faced with carrying out an act of euthanasia. This is why our project aims at studying the determinants of intentions of nurses and physicians eventually invited to perform an act of euthanasia in palliative care. It could enlighten decision-makers as to its possible impact on the practices of health professionals and caregivers themselves. It includes four objectives: 1. Identify the determinants of nurses' intention to practice an act of euthanasia or not; 2. Identify the determinants of physicians' intention to practice an act of euthanasia or not; 3. Identify the significant differences between the determinants in the predictability model of nurses compared to that of physicians; and 4. Measure the impact of the presence or absence of the person's wishes on the intention of the nurses (4a) and of the physicians (4b). The project is based on Triandis's psychosocial theory (1980) which permits, through a questionnaire, to study the determinants of the healthcare professionals' intention (Godin et al., 2008a).