• Hui-Ping Chen, Bo-Yan Huang, Ting-Wu Yi, Yao-Tiao Deng, Jie Liu, Jie Zhang, Yu-Qing Wang, Zong-Yan Zhang, and Yu Jiang.
• 1 Department of Medical Oncology, Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy, West China Hospital, Sichuan University , Chengdu, People's Republic of China .
• J Palliat Med. 2016 Aug 1; 19 (8): 874-8.

BackgroundDeath with dignity (DWD) refers to the refusal of life-prolonging measures for terminally ill patients by "living wills" forms in advance. More and more oncology physicians are receiving DWD requests from advance cancer patients in mainland China.ObjectiveThe study objective was to investigate the attitudes of Chinese oncology physicians toward the legalization and implementation of DWD.MethodsA questionnaire investigating the understanding and attitudes toward DWD was administered to 257 oncology physicians from 11 hospitals in mainland China.ResultsThe effective response rate was 86.8% (223/257). The majority of oncology physicians (69.1%) had received DWD requests from patients. Half of the participants (52.5%) thought that the most important reason was the patients' unwillingness to maintain survival through machines. One-third of participants (33.0%) attributed the most important reason to suffering from painful symptoms. Most oncology physicians (78.9%) had knowledge about DWD. A fifth of respondents did not know the difference between DWD and euthanasia, and a few even considered DWD as euthanasia. The majority of oncology physicians supported the legalization (88.3%) and implementation (83.9%) of DWD.ConclusionsMany Chinese oncology physicians have received advanced cancer patients' DWD requests and think that DWD should be legalized and implemented. Chinese health management departments should consider the demands of physicians and patients. It is important to inform physicians about the difference between DWD and euthanasia, as one-fifth of them were confused about it.

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