Speaker: Nicola Lacetera (U Bologna)

Title: (Let Me) Save and Let (me) Die? Economic Factors and Support for Medical Aid in dying (with S. S. Sartor, F. H. Schneider and R. Weber)

When: Monday, 23 June 2025, 11:30 am – 13:00 pm

Where: Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz, lecture hall 5 (ground floor) (map)

Abstract:

The ethics and legalization of Medical Aid in Dying (MAiD)—the practice of intentionally ending one’s life with the assistance of a healthcare professional—remain highly debated across countries and contexts. Although medical and public health research has explored heterogeneity in support for MAiD, economic perspectives on the issue are limited. We study how economic and non-economic factors affect public support for MAiD. We conceptualize that an observer’s evaluation of MAiD depends on the patient’s well-being, societal impacts, and moral judgments. We report results from three survey experiments with U.S. participants that vary these aspects of the decision environment. We find that although deteriorations in health and financial circumstances equally reduce perceived well-being, financial impairments generate less support for MAiD than health impairments. We also show that that participants are more supportive of MAiD when poor health outcomes are medically unavoidable rather than due to financial constraints, reinforcing the primacy of health over financial hardship in these judgments. Finally, concerns about public healthcare expenditures do not affect support for MAiD. Our findings indicate that, even in economically significant contexts, moral and ethical considerations dominate financial trade-offs in public attitudes toward MAiD.

The paper be found here.