Exploration of conflicts between religious beliefs and medical treatments

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Exploration of conflicts between

religious beliefs and medical treatments

Michelle Calderon

2010-08-10

Paths of Faith


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Introduction

Medicine, as the science whose absolute maxim is saving lives using all available

resources, has always been surrounded by cultural, ethical and moral factors, all

subjective and thus susceptible to consideration and changedepending onparticular

situations; the religious factor however is not that openedas it has very specific

obligations.Some religions clash with medicine and certain treatments provoking a

largely debated and never concluded argument between freedom of choice and civil

rights. This essay will try to expose these conflicts presenting concrete positions,

cases, their resolutions and consequences.

Conflicts

One of the most debated issues nowadays is the doctors religious beliefs vs. the

patient needs, it also expands to pharmacists unwilling to provide certain drugs against

their principles. There is no discussion towards patients and family praying as a way to

improve healing as long as its not tried to use as a replacement for medical treatment,

some authors claim there is a link between praying and improved healing outcomes but

there are no conclusive results. i The problem arise when a doctor or nurse approaches

patients or family recommending praying, this is a delicate issue considering the

sensitive situation and can create a conflict if different beliefs are involved.


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Some health professionals have decided not to practice certain treatments when they

dont consider them appropriate according to their principles. This is another difficult

topic as it could allow them to decide pretty much everytreatment supported by their

religious beliefs that can be of any kind as new or unknown sects arise frequently. To

avoid these situations health professionals involved in these cases should offer transfer

the case to another physician and they also have the option to apply for private

institutions aligned to their own beliefs. These problems are also related to abortion and

contraception.

Legislation in most countries has rules about abortion and who can or cant opt for

certain choices. Still many doctors and pharmacist have been allowed, according to

their beliefs, to provide or not what a patient requires. To make this situation even more

difficult some religions, even loosing followers because of it ii, are against certain

contraceptive methods. The use of condoms for example is not allowed by the Catholic

church which represents a major issue in countries where AIDS is becoming

uncontrollable.

Furthermore, women in countries where their population has no access or proper

medical care who are not allowed to use modern contraception methods because of

their religion provoke in many cases the death of the child or themselves during

childbirth or the first days of live of the newborns, and could as well transmit AIDS to


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them. All these problems could be prevented educating people and providing proper

contraception methods.

Following the same pattern, sex education is still not considered an option for Islamic

Clerics if it involves discussions over safe sex and abortion, on the other hand though

Iran legislation for example, is considering allowingdoctors to perform abortions under

certain circumstances and conditions, choice is not one of them,compliant with Islamic

law.This can be considered a step forward to prevent loosing lives due to illegal and

dangerous abortion practices but this is just one of many steps towards that goal which

includes freedom of choice.

For example, most religions nowadays allow freedom of choice in regards to organ

donation, but this hasnt been the case for most of them in the past. Some religions like

Shinto still consider this a practice not suitable for them as they believe a corpse is

impure and dangerous and consider a crime to injure a dead body.iii Many religions

dont have a clear statement about this topic, some are divided but most of them allow

individuals to have their own opinion and decision about it based on their own moral and

principles.

There are also certain occasions when patients or their families, based on their

beliefs,are the ones requesting certain treatments not considered appropriate for the


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practitioner, these cases are becoming even more frequent than the ones previously

discussed where the patient is the one refusing the treatment.iv One specific and

probably the most debated subject where the patient request treatment against the

doctor recommendations is euthanasia.

Due to advances in technology and medicine it is now easier to prolong and even

maintain life artificially, in many occasions providing the time for practitioners to save

lives but sometimes creating unreal expectations hard to abandon. The problem here

appears when patients cant be declared death using neurological criteria and their

families decide to continue extending their lives waiting for their deities to take action

even though recuperation is impossible. Legislation has to be absolutely clear to avoid

debates in these situations.

Another topic were legislation is taking more control is children and civil rights,

specifically the impediment to refuse medical treatment in life threatening situations

where families try to opt for faith healing instead. Studies have demonstrated that the

rate of fatalities involving these circumstances justifies measurements to avoid new

cases, one specific study showed that more than 90% of deceases could have been

avoided.v


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These numbers are not showing other factors involved in these cases like the

associated suffering for the children, families and community in general. There cant be

another topic sensitive enough to strengthen the need for formal involvement and

control over medical decisions.

Conclusion

Religion and medicine were hand by hand in their primitive stages, many times

practiced by the same person, however, the extremely fast evolution of science has left

many religions in the verge. If religion doesnt evolve at the same pace it causes many

problems like the ones described in this document. Moreover, there must be

government involvement to guarantee that only adults can choose to receive or not a

certain medical procedure but kids will always receive the best possible treatment

independent of any non-medical related factor either from the parents or the health

professional.


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iOntario Consultants on Religious Tolerance, Healing by prayer

http://www.religioustolerance.org/medical.htm, B.A. Robinson, 1995.

iiThe Religious Consultation, RELIGION AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AND RIGHTS

http://www.religiousconsultation.org/News_Tracker/religion_and_reproductive_health_and_rights.

htm, PLANetWIRE MEDIA SUMMARY, 2005

iiiCooper ML, Taylor GJ. Organ and Tissue Donation. A Reference Guide for Clergy, 4th ed.,2000

Available athttp://www.organtransplants.org/understanding/religion

ivRobert D Orr, Leigh B Genesen. Requests for "inappropriate" treatment

based on religious beliefs. Journal of Medical Ethics 1997;23: 142-147. Available at

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1377339/

vAsser SM, Swan R. Child fatalities from religion-motivated medical neglect. PEDIATRICS Vol. 101 No.

4 April 1998, pp. 625-629. Available at

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/101/4/625

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Exploration of conflicts between religious beliefs and medical treatments