Understanding the Assessment of the Will to Die and Its Link With Hastened Death Requests

Abstract: Understanding the will to die in patients with a serious and incurable disease is essential due to its complexity and potential connection with requests for hastened death. This systematic review aimed to identify any new assessment tools developed since 2016 to evaluate the will to die and determine if there is a relationship with the growing legalization of hastened death processes. The review followed the PRISMA guidelines, and out of 1,588 initially identified studies, 33 were selected for analysis. Within this review, 12 assessment tools were identified, of which 7 were new instruments used since 2016. However, the overall reliability and validity of these new tools ranged from inadequate to good when analyzing the psychometric information. The identified assessment tools appear to have conceptual limitations when applied in the context of hastened death evaluation. Based on the findings of this systematic review, there is a need for new instruments specifically designed for assessing the will to die within the context of hastened death. These new tools should have robust content validity, focusing on the motivators behind the will to hasten death to address this process’s increasing legalization.