Turkey's physicians' attitudes toward euthanasia: a brief research report

Euthanasia and assisted suicide are subject to an ongoing debate and discussed with various aspects. Because physicians are in a profession closely related to euthanasia, their attitudes toward this subject are significant. Thus, research intending to explore their opinions is carried out in many countries. In this study, opinions of the physicians regarding euthanasia's definition, contents, legal aspects, and acceptable conditions for its application are addressed. The questionnaire was given to 949 physicians, more than 1% of the total working in Turkey. Of the physicians who participated in the study, 49.9% agreed with the opinion that euthanasia should be legal in certain circumstances. In addition, 19% had come across a euthanasia request and the majority of physicians (55.9%) believed that euthanasia is applied secretly in the country despite the prohibitory legislation. In conclusion, the authors infer from the study itself and believe that euthanasia should be legal in certain circumstances and that the subject, which is not in the agenda of the Turkish population, should continue to be examined.     

Path analysis and determining the distribution of indirect effects via simulation

The difference between a path analysis and the other multivariate analyses is that the path analysis has the ability to compute the indirect effects apart from the direct effects. The aim of this study is to investigate the distribution of indirect effects that is one of the components of path analysis via generated data. To realize this, a simulation study has been conducted with four different sample sizes, three different numbers of explanatory variables and with three different correlation matrices. A replication of 1000 has been applied for every single combination. According to the results obtained, it is found that irrespective of the sample size path coefficients tend to be stable. Moreover, path coefficients are not affected by correlation types either. Since the replication number is 1000, which is fairly large, the indirect effects from the path models have been treated as normal and their confidence intervals have been presented as well. It is also found that the path analysis should not be used with three explanatory variables. We think that this study would help scientists who are working in both natural and social sciences to determine sample size and different number of variables in the path analysis.     

Poison or antidote: How subnational informal institutions exacerbate and ameliorate institutional voids

We explore the mechanisms through which subnational informal institutions exacerbate or ameliorate voids in national formal institutions. Informed by a within-country, cross-sub-region case comparison, we find two exacerbating mechanisms: Competition between the logics embedded in national and subnational institutions and the sabotage of a formal national institution by a void in a subnational informal institution. We also find two ameliorating mechanisms: Strong subnational informal institutions substitute for weak national institutions and bridge voids in formal institutions. Finally, we identify the conditions of expectation alignment and engagement associated with the competition, sabotage, substitution, and bridging mechanisms. Our findings contribute to institutional theory by providing a more subtle and contingent understanding of the interaction between informal and formal, and subnational and national, institutions. Our results also suggest ways in which constrained managers and bureaucrats can reduce the effects of voids in national formal institutions.