Public Attitudes Toward Life and Death |
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| Authors: | SAWYER DARWIN O. |
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| Affiliation: | Darwin O. Sawyer was an Assistant Professor in the Health Planning and Administration Program at Pennsylvania State University at the time of this analysis. The author wishes to thank Professor Clifford Clogg for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper. The data utilized in this report were made available by the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research. The data for the Spring 1977 General Social Survey, National Data Program for the Social Sciences, were originally collected by James A. Davis of the National Opinion Research Center, University of Chicago, and were distributed by Roper Public Opinion Research Center, Williams College. Neither the original collector of the data nor the consortium bears any responsibility for the analyses or interpretations presented here. |
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| Abstract: | Opinion trends in this country indicate sharp divisions in publicsentiment over a number of life-taking actions. While legalabortion and capital punishment clearly head the list, a numberof other issues have gained national attention in recent years.The present paper explores the structure of belief systems givingrise to normative conflicts of this kind. Of particular interestis the notion of a "pro-life" or other generic life orientation(e.g., the alleged "right-to-die" orientation of those who favor"mercy killings" in the case of terminally ill patients) asa possible explanation for public attitudes toward specificissues such as suicide and euthanasia. The present analysisassesses the empirical claims associated with such a model.The results offer qualified support for the existence of genericvalue orientations as revealed by public attitudes toward legalabortion, suicide, euthanasia, and capital punishment. |
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