Physician-assisted suicide travel constraints: thematic content analysis of online reviews

Jun Wen, Chung-En Yu, Edmund Goh*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

15 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Constraints to participating in leisure activities have been studied extensively. Yet given the sensitive nature of death and death-related topics, little effort has been invested in understanding travel constraints that limit people’s decisions to engage in physician-assisted suicide travel. As this form of travel is a relatively new area of interest in the tourism literature, this study investigates the public’s perceptions of physician-assisted suicide travel by extracting online comments from user-generated content. By applying thematic content analysis with a deductive approach, a pre-coding scheme was developed based on the hierarchical constraint model. Four travel constraints were identified: perceived incapability and lack of personal support (intrapersonal constraints), lack of suitable travel agencies and services (structural constraint), and complex travel decision making. The latter consisted of two sub-dimensions: individualistic decisions (intrapersonal constraint) and collectivistic decisions (interpersonal constraint). The findings of this study help to contextualise physician-assisted suicide practices and knowledge in a tourism context. Relevant practical implications are also discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)553-557
Number of pages5
JournalTourism Recreation Research
Volume44
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2 Oct 2019
Externally publishedYes

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