Nine-in-ten Americans say they celebrate Christmas, and three-quarters say they believe in the virgin birth of Jesus. But only about half see Christmas mostly as a religious holiday, while one-third view it as more of a cultural holiday.
Views about physician-assisted suicide are, as expected, tied more broadly to beliefs about the morality of suicide. Such beliefs tend to vary depending on the circumstances considered. About six-in-ten adults (62%) believe a person has a moral right to end their own life if they are suffering great pain and have no hope of improvement. […]
Public opinion on laws that would allow physician-assisted suicide is closely divided, with 47% of U.S. adults approving and 49% disapproving of laws that would allow medical doctors to prescribe lethal doses of drugs for terminally ill patients who choose to commit suicide. The opinion divide over this issue is virtually unchanged from a 2005 […]
Washington, D.C. Nov. 21, 2013 — At a time of national debate over health care costs and insurance, a new Pew Research Center survey on end-of-life decisions finds most Americans say there are some circumstances in which doctors and nurses should allow a patient to die. At the same time, however, a growing minority says […]
The Pew Research survey asked respondents about their personal preferences for medical treatment in different scenarios. A majority of adults (57%) say they would ask their doctors to stop medical treatment if they had a disease with no hope of improvement and they were suffering a great deal of pain, while 35% would tell their […]
After six eventful months, Pope Francis is rated favorably by eight-in-ten U.S. Catholics (79%), largely unchanged since the days immediately following his ascension to the papacy.
The Pew Research survey finds some ambivalence in public views about proxy decision-making – that is, decisions made by someone other than the patient – in end-of-life treatment matters. On the one hand, a clear majority supports the idea of allowing a close family member to decide whether or not to continue medical treatment when […]