AI Article Synopsis
- Physicians should prioritize the health of patients who express a desire to suffer for religious reasons while respecting their beliefs and authority to refuse treatments.
- Both physicians and chaplains should engage in respectful discussions, potentially challenging the patient's views on suffering, and utilize chaplains’ expertise to address spiritual concerns.
- In cases of spiritual and existential suffering, involving the patient's religious community can be beneficial if the patient is amenable to it.
Article Abstract
When physicians encounter a patient who gives religious reasons for wanting to suffer, physicians should maintain their commitment to the patient's health while making room for religiously informed understandings of suffering and respecting the patient's authority to refuse medically indicated interventions. Respecting the patient can include challenging the patient's reasoning, and physicians can decline to participate in interventions that they believe contradict their professional commitments. Chaplains likewise should both support and possibly respectfully challenge a patient in instances that involve desire to suffer for religious reasons, and physicians should draw on chaplains' expertise in these situations to attend to the patient's spiritual concerns. Finally, conversations involving spiritual and existential suffering might include members of the patient's religious community when the patient is open to this option.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/amajethics.2018.613 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!