FactCheck Q A: do 80% of Australians and up to 70% of Catholics and Anglicans support euthanasia laws?
- Written by Colleen Cartwright, Professor & Director, ASLaRC Aged Services, Southern Cross University
The Conversation fact-checks claims made on Q&A, broadcast Mondays on the ABC at 9:35pm. Thank you to everyone who sent us quotes for checking via Twitter using hashtags #FactCheck and #QandA, on Facebook or by email.
I’m speaking for 80% of the Australian population here who support the euthanasia laws and in terms of Catholics and Anglicans, I’m speaking for up to 70% of them as well. – Author Nikki Gemmell, speaking on Q&A, April 10, 2017.
The Victorian government is expected to introduce a bill in the second half of this year to legalise euthanasia. If passed, the laws would be the first in Australia to legalise assisted dying since the Northern Territory’s euthanasia laws were overturned in 1997.
During a discussion on Q&A, author Nikki Gemmell – who has been arguing to legalise euthanasia since sharing the story of her mother’s “horrifically lonely” death – said 80% of Australians and up to 70% of Catholics and Anglicans support euthanasia laws.
Is that right?
(Thanks to all the Q&A viewers who requested this FactCheck: see more viewer tweets at the end of this article.)
Checking the source
When asked for sources to support her statement about Australians’ support for euthanasia laws, Gemmell supplied The Conversation with a table listing 10 polls conducted in Australia on the topic of euthanasia between 2007 and 2016.
The table shows support for euthanasia ranging between 66% and 85% over the years from 2007-16.
Table by Kiki Paul, provided by Nikki Gemmell., Author providedThe Conversation has independently verified each of these polls.
As for her statement that up to 70% of Catholics and Anglicans support euthanasia laws, Gemmell pointed The Conversation to a website run by Christians Supporting Choice for Voluntary Euthanasia.
The website refers to a 2007 Newspoll survey of more than 2,400 people commissioned by Dying with Dignity Victoria, which found 74% of Catholic/Roman Catholic respondents and 81% of Anglican/Church of England respondents surveyed thought doctors should be allowed to provide “a lethal dose to a patient experiencing unrelievable suffering and with no hope of recovery”.
Gemmell also provided a link to a document published by YourLastRight.com, a group of seven not-for-profit pro-euthanasia societies across Australia.
The document refers to a 2012 Newspoll survey of more than 2,500 people, commissioned by YourLastRight.com. That poll asked the question:
Thinking now about voluntary euthanasia. If a hopelessly ill patient, experiencing unrelievable suffering, with absolutely no chance of recovering asks for a lethal dose, should a doctor be allowed to provide a lethal dose, or not?
In that poll, 77% of Catholic/Roman Catholic and 88% of Anglican/Church of England respondents said yes.
A critical look at the polls
The first thing to remember is that not all polls are created equal. Random sample, population-based studies, conducted in a way that maximises the opportunity to participate (such as postal surveys), with well-designed questionnaires, non-leading questions and rigorous data analysis are the “gold standard” for surveys of public opinions and beliefs.
A closer examination of the polls is warranted – so let’s look in more detail at the some of the key surveys Gemmell cites, including from The Australia Institute, ABC Vote Compass, Newspoll and others.
Surveys that ask about people with “unrelievable suffering”
First, let’s look at the Australia Institute and Newspoll results. These surveys asked whether respondents supported voluntary euthanasia for people experiencing “unrelievable suffering”, often in the context of a terminal illness. But it’s important to note that “unrelievable suffering” is only one of the reasons people request assistance to die.
In 2012 the Australia Institute commissioned a survey (1,422 respondents) and reported that 71% supported:
the legalisation of voluntary euthanasia for people experiencing unrelievable and incurable physical and/or mental suffering.
In a 2010 survey (1,294 respondents), the Australia Institute asked:
This question is about voluntary euthanasia. If someone with a terminal illness who is experiencing unrelievable suffering asks to die, should a doctor be allowed to assist them to die?
75% of respondents said “yes, voluntary euthanasia should be legal”. Of the respondents who identified as Christians, 65% said voluntary euthanasia should be legal.
The quality of the Australia Institute research was generally acceptable. To ensure that the survey was representative of the Australian population, sampling quotas were applied by age, gender and territory, and data were post-weighted based on the profile of the adult Australian population.
However, I note some limitations with the 2010 Australia Institute poll:
a) This was an online survey, which would have excluded many older people and potentially people from lower socio-economic backgrounds who may have had limited access to computers, as well as some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
In a series of stratified, population-based postal surveys my colleagues and I conducted in Queensland and the Northern Territory between 1995 and 2002, participants were asked about their level of support for “terminally ill people who decide they no longer wish to live”. In those studies, 65%-75% of respondents said euthanasia should be legally available, but those aged 75 and over were the least likely to agree with this.
There was also concern among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the Northern Territory about the introduction in 1995 of laws legalising euthanasia (overturned in 1997). Had there been more participation among older people and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the Australia Institute poll, the results may have shown less acceptance of voluntary euthanasia.
(b) The question itself was problematic. As mentioned earlier, “unrelievable suffering” is not the only reason people request assistance to die. The main reasons for requests for assistance to die include loss of control, dignity and independence; and having “had enough” or being “ready to go” – not just “unrelievable suffering”.
If someone is experiencing unrelievable suffering, there should be a thorough investigation of their pain and symptom management, and other causes of distress, with the option of terminal sedation for unmanageable suffering.
Then there are Newspoll’s findings from 2007, 2009 and 2012, from surveys commissioned by Dying With Dignity Victoria, Dying with Dignity NSW and YourLastRight.com respectively.
In those surveys, 80-85% of respondents answered yes to the question:
Thinking now about voluntary euthanasia. If a hopelessly ill patient, experiencing unrelievable suffering, with absolutely no chance of recovering asks for a lethal dose, should a doctor be allowed to provide a lethal dose, or not?
Again, that is very leading question, which limits its credibility.
Surveys with less leading questions
Since 2013, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) has run national and statewide surveys using an online tool called Vote Compass, developed by data scientists from Canada in collaboration with political scientists from the University of Melbourne. It allows voters to respond to political and social issues on an opt-in basis.
The 2016 Vote Compass survey (201,404 respondents) found 75% of respondents strongly agreed or somewhat agreed with the statement:
Terminally ill patients should be able to legally end their own lives with medical assistance.
Authors: Colleen Cartwright, Professor & Director, ASLaRC Aged Services, Southern Cross University