Euthanasia and the Family: An analysis of Japanese doctors’ reactions to demands for voluntary euthanasia

What should Japanese doctors do when asked by a patient for active voluntary euthanasia (VE), when the family wants aggressive treatment to continue? In this paper, we present the results of a questionnaire survey of 366 Japanese doctors, who were asked how they would act in a hypothetical situation of this kind, and how they would justify their decision, 23% of respondents said they would act on the patient’s wishes, and provided reasons for their view; 54% said they would not practice VE, either because they were opposed to VE as such, or because they believed that the wishes of the patient’s family should be respected.