© 2005 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd. & Royal College of Nursing
Qualitative
Expressed desire for hastened death by patients with advanced cancer had several meanings and uses
Coyle N, Sculco L. Expressed desire for hastened death in seven patients living with advanced cancer: a phenomenologic inquiry. Oncol Nurs Forum 2004;31:699–709.[Medline]
Q What are the meanings and uses of an expressed desire for hastened death in patients with advanced cancer?
Key Words: attitude to death • neoplasms • terminally ill
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Qualitative study using phenomenologic inquiry.
An urban cancer research centre.
7 English speaking patients (age range 40–79 y, 4 men) with advanced cancer who had expressed a desire for hastened death on 
1 occasion.
Data were collected during a series of 2–6 indepth interviews that lasted 30–60 minutes. Time periods for each interview series ranged from 2 days to 6 months. The interviews were audiotaped and transcribed, and themes were developed through content analysis.
Chronic triggers that preceded the expressed desire for hastened death included debilitating progression of disease; perception of chronic and progressive loss of social support, dignity, autonomy, and sense of worth; and perception of being a burden to self or others in the present or future. Acute events preceding expression of a desire for hastened death included uncontrolled pain, shortness of breath, and medical information that produced fear, hopelessness, and a sense of dread.
9 distinct, but
Department of Health Care Sciences
Ersta University College
Stockholm, Sweden
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in this journal
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
-
Pain (neurology)
-
End of life decisions (geriatric medicine)
-
End of life decisions (palliative care)
-
End of life decisions (ethics)
- Hospice
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
