Chapter 7 – Interview methods – asking people direct questions

How many of your questions will, produce short answers (e.g., ‘do you believe in assisted suicide?’ or ‘would you ever assist someone to commit suicide?’ – these are closed questions and may only produce single answers of ‘yes’ or ‘no’).

Have you used prompts and probes to facilitate elaboration of shorter answers? (e.g., ‘If no, could you tell me why?’)

Have you investigated:

• The conditions under which your interviewee would agree to assist or agrees with assisted suicide – e.g., how many months to live, how much certainty of pain, etc., for degenerative diseases or just when life is unbearable?
• Their reasons for wanting or not wanting to assist.
• Their reasons for accepting or rejecting the idea.
• The perspective of the potential suicide, the assister, the immediate family of the dying person?
• The effect that publicised suicides might have on other people.
• Whether the interviewee would follow the law of the land (and therefore think it permissible to assist suicide in countries where this is legal).
• To what extent is the assister legally culpable?
• The feelings of people assisting a loved one to suicide.
• The implications of the Hippocratic oath and doctors’ commitment to sustaining life.
• … or does the commitment to care include helping people escape pain and indignity?
• The position of carers and whether sufficient support is available for them.
• The issue of whether we should wait for technological advances, e.g., in the area of pain relief.
• How much medical opinion should be sought – at least two doctors (e.g.)?
• The issue of maintaining dignity.
• Whether suicide is ‘cowardly’, ‘selfish’ or an act of ‘bravery’, ‘courageous’.
• The sanitisation of death – so it is kept away from us most of the time.
• Whether removing life sustaining support is assisting suicide or ‘murder’.
• The issue of control – who should decide to maintain life if a person wants to end theirs.
• Religious reasons or arguments for views.
• Have you teased out arguments for and/or against rather than just isolated views?