Crosstabulations

GSS Responses on Euthanasia and Suicide

The topic of this forum is the circumstances under which the population favors suicide or right to die. The three variables selected from GSS 2012 (NORC, 2017) were suicide4, suicide 1, and letdie1.

The descriptive statistics for suicide4 (“Do you think a person has the right to end his or her own life if this person . . . Is tired of living and ready to die?”; Smith, Davern, Freese, & Hout, 2017, pp. 488–489) are given in Table 1. Because the valid answers were yes and no, the variable is nominal and its proper graph is a bar chart, shown in Figure 1. Of 4,820 respondents, 3,145 (65.25%) responded to this question, of whom 20% answered yes and 80% answered no.

The descriptive statistics for suicide1 (“Do you think a person has the right to end his or her own life if this person . . . Has an incurable disease?”; Smith et al., 2017, p. 488) are given in Table 2. Again, the valid answers were yes and no, so the variable is nominal and its proper graph is a bar chart, shown in Figure 2. A slightly smaller number of respondents (3,112, or 64.6%) responded, of whom nearly 60% answered yes.

The descriptive statistics for letdie1 (“When a person has a disease that cannot be cured, do you think doctors should be allowed by law to end the patient's life by some painless means if the patient and his family request it?”; Smith et al., 2017, p. 487) are given in Table 3. Like the preceding two variables, the variable is nominal with two valid levels, so its proper graph is a bar chart, shown in Figure 3. Of the respondents, 3,119 (64.7%) responded, of whom over 68% answered yes.

Tables

Table 1: Descriptive statistics for suicide4

SUICIDE IF TIRED OF LIVING
Value Label	Value	Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cum Percent
YES	1	629	13.05	20.00	20.00
NO	2	2516	52.20	80.00	100.00
IAP	0	1589	32.97	Missing
DK	8	69	1.43	Missing
NA	9	17	.35	Missing
Total	4820	100.0	100.0

SUICIDE IF TIRED OF LIVING
N	Valid	3145
	Missing	1675
Mean		1.80
Mode		2.00
Std Dev		.40
Variance		.16
Minimum		1.00
Maximum		2.00
Percentiles	50 (Median)	2

Table 2: Descriptive statistics for suicide1

SUICIDE IF INCURABLE DISEASE
Value Label	Value	Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cum Percent
YES	1	1862	38.63	59.83	59.83
NO	2	1250	25.93	40.17	100.00
IAP	0	1589	32.97	Missing
DK	8	102	2.12	Missing
NA	9	17	.35	Missing
Total	4820	100.0	100.0

SUICIDE IF INCURABLE DISEASE
N	Valid	3112
	Missing	1708
Mean		1.40
Mode		1.00
Std Dev		.49
Variance		.24
Minimum		1.00
Maximum		2.00
Percentiles	50 (Median)	1

Table 3: Descriptive statistics for letdie

ALLOW INCURABLE PATIENTS TO DIE
Value Label	Value	Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cum Percent
YES	1	2130	44.19	68.29	68.29
NO	2	989	20.52	31.71	100.00
IAP	0	1589	32.97	Missing
DK	8	94	1.95	Missing
NA	9	18	.37	Missing
Total	4820	100.0	100.0

ALLOW INCURABLE PATIENTS TO DIE
N	Valid	3119
	Missing	1701
Mean		1.32
Mode		1.00
Std Dev		.47
Variance		.22
Minimum		1.00
Maximum		2.00
Percentiles	50 (Median)	1

Figures

Figure 1. Bar chart for suicide4.

Figure 2. Bar chart for suicide1.

Figure 3. Bar chart for letdie1.

References

National Opinion Research Center [NORC]. (2017). GSS 2012 merged with all cases and variables (Release 9, October 2017). Retrieved from http://gss.norc.org/Documents/spss/GSS_2012_Merged_SPSS.zip

Smith, T. W., Davern, M., Freese, J., & Hout, M. (2017). General Social Surveys, 1972-2016: cumulative codebook. Chicago, IL: National Opinion Research Center.