Abstract:
When a person ends his life by his own act it is called “suicide” but to end life of a person by
others through on the request of the deceased is called “euthanasia”. Sri Lanka is a country with
70% of Buddhists who believe that killing one’s self is a sin. Similarly in both Hippocratic Oath
and Nightingale pledge, Health Care professional swore not to harm people intentionally. The
debate on legalizing euthanasia and assisted suicide has a broad range of participants including physicians, nurses, lawyers, politicians, and the general public. The concept is conflictual
and despite its importance participants are poorly informed about the facts. The objective of
the study is to identify the opinion of Health Care professional including Medical Officers and
Nursing Officers as they observe and feel the agony of death of chronically or terminally ill
patients in Health Care institutions. In this simple descriptive study it was aimed to assess the
need for a physician assisted suicide. Data was collected by a self-administered questionnaire
distributed among Nursing Officers of the Accident Service, National Hospital of Sri Lanka. Of
the results obtained Majority of the participants were female (89%) and age group was 35–40
years (76%). Majority (80%) of them were aware about the concept of Euthanasia. 75% of them
believed it is ethical. Whereas 66% of them knew it is legalized in Western countries. Among
the nursing professional 87% of them mentioned that they themselves will accept Euthanasia if
they are chronically ill. Finally 66.6% of them agreed that Euthanasia should be legalized in
Sri Lanka. Even though the Euthanasia is absolutely incompatible with the Hippocratic Oath
Nightingale pledge, law of the country and culture, the majority are of the view that it should
be legalized with in Sri Lanka
