Journal of medical ethics
-
Journal of medical ethics · Aug 2005
Attitudes towards and barriers to writing advance directives amongst cancer patients, healthy controls, and medical staff.
After years of public discussion too little is still known about willingness to accept the idea of writing an advance directive among various groups of people in EU countries. We investigated knowledge about and willingness to accept such a directive in cancer patients, healthy controls, physicians, and nursing staff in Germany. ⋯ Only a minority of the participants had written an advance directive and knew about the possibility of authorizing a health care proxy. Deteriorating health was associated with increasing willingness to make a directive. Despite a majority belief that advance directives may influence treatment at the end of life, other factors limit their employment, such as fear of abuse.