Can religion and medicine always happily co-exist? Most doctors will respect a patient’s religious views but I find myself at a crossroads.
Would I feel torn to resist giving a treatment that has no benefit if the request for it is based on religion?
I found it helpful reading a feature by Daniel Sokol in the BMJ where he describes attending a conference in the Vatican on religion and medical ethics also attended by an archbishop, the chief rabbi of Rome and a Qatari scholar on Islamic ethics.
The subject was palliative care, and while there is common ground between religions, some big differences exist within individual ones.
Certain Catholics, for instance, have no objection to accepting painkillers at the end of life, while others see suffering as “redemptive” suffering for God, identifying with Christ who suffered on the cross for the sins of humanity.
Variation also exists within the Islamic approach to the withdrawal of life-support treatments such as artificial feeding and hydration.
On the one hand, some scholars forbid withdrawal of treatment in patients who aren’t brain dead and on the other it’s permissible if patients are dying.
Given this variability of beliefs and practices within a single religion, end-of-life experts recommend approaching each patient as a “belief system of one”. Then again some patients believe that their illness is a punishment from God and refuse treatment altogether.
Perhaps the most difficult subject is palliative care of children. How does a doctor answer questions like “Why has this happened to me? What have I done wrong?”
I’d have to think long and hard about that.
Doctors have a duty of care to respect patients’ religious views. They should listen to those views with an open mind and treat them with the utmost seriousness.
Tension can arise between a faith’s position on the morality of an intervention and the medical principle of not causing harm.
What can a doctor do if a patient insists on life-sustaining treatment for religious reasons when the doctors believe it to be harmful?
If the doctors refuse to respect the patient’s request, how best to do so with minimum offence or damage to the relationship of trust between doctor and patient?
Religion can’t force doctors to violate their own ethical values.
In times of disagreement, a spiritual care professional such as a chaplain, imam or rabbi with greater knowledge of a patient’s faith can probably help resolve tensions and reduce spiritual distress.
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