Attitudes about withholding or withdrawing life-prolonging treatment, euthanasia, assisted suicide, and physician assisted suicide: a cross-sectional survey among the general public in Croatia

Table 5 Matrix of varimax factor structures*

	Death-self-determination	WWT without patient's consent
A dying patient has the right to decide about the end of their own life	.861
Physicians are obliged to help a dying patient to realize their wish to die	.838
No one, not even the individual in question, has the right to decide about the moment of their death	− .816
Procedures in which a person is directly killed by a physician should be absolutely prohibited by law	− .745
People who are dying and who are experiencing extreme suffering should be granted their wish to die by a physician giving them a substance which will cause their death	.738
Treatment procedures should not be initiated for people who are dying and who are experiencing extreme and unbearable suffering		.901
All treatment measures should be withdrawn from dying patients who are experiencing extreme and unbearable suffering		.875

*In the first step of factor analysis we excluded the item: “Withholding treatment and "allowing" a patient to die should be regulated by law to avoid abuse”. In the second step of factor analysis we excluded the item: “People who are dying and who are experiencing extreme and unbearable suffering should be granted their wish to die, and all treatment measures that could prolong their life withdrawn.” and the item “People who are dying and who are experiencing extreme and unbearable suffering should have their wish to die granted, and no treatment procedures should be initiated that could extend their life.” In the third step of factor analysis we excluded the item: “People who are dying and who are experiencing extreme suffering should be granted their wish to die, and they should be enabled to end their own lives,” to meet the requirements of a simple structure. The two items: “Do you believe that physicians should be permitted by law to painlessly end the life of a patient who is suffering from an incurable illness, if the patient and the patient’s family ask for it?” and “Do you believe that physicians should be permitted by law to help a patient who is suffering from an incurable illness and is living with severe pain to end their own life, if the patient asks for it?” were not included in the factor analysis because of the different construction of the instrument

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