The two most controversial ends of life decisions are those in which physicians help patients take their lives and when the physician deliberately and directly intervenes to end the patients? life upon his request. These are often referred to as voluntary euthanasia and Physician assisted suicide. Voluntary euthanasia and Physician assisted suicide have continued to be controversial public issues. This controversy has agitated the minds of great thinkers including ethicians, physicians, psychologists, moralists, philosophers even the patient himself.

Suicide research has a long tradition within sociology. Parallel to the Durkheimian tradition, seeking the causes of suicide in societal factors, a more cultural understanding of suicide has been emphasized. Attitudes to suicide have been stressed as important for the understanding of suicide mortality levels in different societies. For Russia, where suicide mortality levels are among the highest in the world, an understanding of this kind might be of particular importance.Based on a survey study from Moscow 2004, attitudes to suicide were studied in relation to social, economic and demographic factors as well as to attitudes to other morally disputable behaviors. Suicide attitudes in different age and sex groups in the sample were further compared to suicide mortality levels in the corresponding groups in the population.

Syftet med studien var att undersöka intresset för aktiv dödshjälp hos patienter som lider av en långt framskriden cancer samt vilka faktorer som påverkar dem i detta ställningstagande. I en litteraturstudie har relevant litteratur insamlats, analyserats och tolkats. Utifrån bevisen från sammanlagt fem kvalitativa studier har nya slutsatser dragits. Resultaten pekar på att det finns ett intresse för aktiv dödshjälp bland svårt sjuka cancerpatienter men att detta i hög grad är framtidsorienterat. Faktorer som påverkar intresset är uppfattningen om att vara en börda för andra, rädsla för framtiden, lidande, den demoraliserande inverkan som cancern har på individen samt religion och etik..

Environment.

Background: Each year, over one million people around the world die as a result of suicide. About 1500 of those are in Sweden. In each case an estimated six kindred?s are to be affected. These people are in great need of support.

During 2010, 1446 people committed suicide in Sweden. Research shows that groups that are less favored in society have an increased risk of suicide. Social services often encounter groups of people that have a high risk of suicide, for instance welfare recipients or substance abusers. The purpose of this study was to shed light on how social workers talk about suicide and how this might affect interactions with suicidal clients. The study is based on qualitative interviews with five social workers in Stockholm.

The aim of this essay is to try to gain understanding and to get a more profound knowledge of suicide. The questions at issue were 1) What empirical factors are mentioned in the research as possible to explain suicide. 2) Which theoretical perspectives are discussed in research concerning suicide. To answer our questions at issue we carried out a selective research overview with a qualitative perspective. The primary documents that has been the foundation of this essay is constituted by nine of the leading researchers publications in the area of suicidology.

Sometimes relatives have taken me on one side and told me they cannot bear it any more:"Isn't there something you can do to end it all?"More often requests for euthanasia have come from those who are ill. I remember visiting a man with lung cancer. He asked his wife to leave the room. As she closed the door he leaned over and grabbed my arm.

Introduction: Suicide is a major public health problem both internationally and in Sweden. Itis known in research that sex and gender have a bearing on the incidence of suicide andattempted suicide. Gender Bias in medical research could lead to medical errors and to thatthe problem is made invisible. That is why it is important to identify and eliminate them. AimThe purpose of this paper was to examine whether there is gender bias in scientific articlesdealing with suicide prevention interventions and how this is expressed.

Men commit more suicide than women all over the world. They commit more violent crimes and are more inclined to alcohol abuse. There are studies that relate this behaviour to the hegemonic image of masculinity.My work focuses on Switzerland. The suicide rate in Switzerland is worrying, for men between 15 and 44 years suicide is the most common cause of death. There is no national suicide prevention and no information or prevention that highlights the connection bet- ween the hegemonic image of masculinity and the suicide rates.

The aim of our study is to examine experience of the quality of life for elderly people with assisted living from their own, and caretakers, perspectives. We also aim to examine how elderly people in assisted living, and caretakers, experiences that they could affect the elderly people´s quality of life. The study is based on a qualitative method and the data is collected by interviews with four recipient of care and three care takers. The result shows that there are many factors that have an importance when it comes to quality of life for the recipient of care. It has shown in the study that the recipient of care and the caretakers put emphasize in the same factors. These factors are health, the affect of assisted living, happiness, relationships and self-determination. The result has shown that the assisted living has a major importance when it comes to the quality of life for the recipient of cares..

Aim. The aim of the study is to highlight Dutch nurses? opinions about assisted death. Background. Since 2002 it has been legally justified for physicians to assist a patients? death in the Netherlands.

Animal-assisted therapy had its large breakthrough in the 1960-ties when a psychiatrist named Boris Levinson discovered the great advantages of involving animals in the treatment of patients. Therapy with animals involves that animals are used in a systematic way, in a person's process of treatment. The most distinguished companion animal used within this area is the dog, but horses, cats, rabbits, birds, dolphins and the most common farm animals are used in animal-assisted therapy. Most animals that are to be used for this specific purpose need to be trained in order to maintain their physical and mental health, but also to minimize the risks for the people that are involved. Most studies within this research area are focused on the positive effects on the patients and less on the effects on the animals.

The aim of this study is to take note of  social worker´s views on opiate addiction and medication-assisted treatment. The definition of social workers in this paper, is people who are involved with individuals  who have an opiate addiction and have therefore been in contact with drug assisted treatment. Data was collected through interviews with social workers. The interviews were based on an interview questionnaire on four explicit themes: Motivation, Medical Assisted Treatment (LA) Other complementary treatment and expenses and its meanings. These are analyzed and discussed through the theory of harm reduction and the theory of labeling..

The aim of the study was to examine how background factors, such as abuse earlier in life, affect depression and suicidal behavior, amongst persons who abuse alcohol or illicit drugs. The study was performed at the Social Service Center, Södermalm, department for adults. The data used in the study is based on Addiction Severity Index interviews (ASI) and includes 560 observations. The statistic methods used to analyse the data is chi² test and the result is presented in cross tables and charts. The main findings were that experiences of psychological, physical, or sexual abuse, earlier in life increase the risk for major depression and suicidal behavior later in life.