May 24, 2005
Report & Analysis · Data · Other Poll Releases
More than three in four Georgians (78 percent) believe that the government should stay out of issues determining whether a patient should be removed from life support or have feeding tubes removed. Another 70 percent say that they trust the courts only a little (16 percent) or not at all (54 percent) to make decisions about their care should they be in a persistent vegetative state. On the other hand, 93 percent trust their family completely (72 percent) or a great deal (21 percent) to do what is best for them in making end-of-life decisions, according to the most recent Peach State Poll.
In cases in which families are divided in their opinions, only 1 percent of respondents assert that the courts should then decide. “It is clear that the public would prefer that government not interfere with these personal decisions,” says poll director Rich Clark. Thirty-eight percent say that the opinion of the patient’s spouse should be given priority, and a plurality (45 percent) say that individual circumstances should be considered in determining whose opinion receives priority in deciding the fate of a terminally ill person who is dependent on life support.
The Peach State Poll is a quarterly survey of public opinion conducted by the University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government.
Other Peach State Poll results:
* Thirty-five percent of Georgians over 18 years of age say that they have completed some document expressing their wishes for care should they be in a long-term coma or in a persistent vegetative state. Of those with such a document, 27 percent completed it within 6 months prior to the poll interview, and 43 percent, within 12 months.
* Of the 65 percent of Georgians who have not completed such a document, 58 percent (or 38 percent of all Georgians) said that they have recently considered it.
* Only 47 percent of Georgians trust their doctors completely (23 percent) or a great deal (24 percent) to make end-of-life care and treatment decisions that are in their best interests.
* Seventy-five percent of Georgians support allowing medical professionals to remove or withhold feeding tubes for patients who have explicitly requested in writing that they not be sustained by feeding tubes should they be in a persistent vegetative state.
These data were taken from a Peach State Poll survey conducted between April 28 and May 7, 2005. The poll included 803 telephone interviews of randomly selected adults in Georgia. For a sample of this size, the margin of error at the 95 percent confidence level is +/-3.5 percent.
