A new study is out that claims atheist physicians are more likely than those of a religious persuasion to hasten the deaths of patients. From the story:
Terminally-ill patients would be well advised to find out the religious beliefs of their doctor, according to research showing the effect of faith on a doctor’s willingness to make decisions that could hasten death. Doctors who are atheist or agnostic are twice as likely to take decisions that might shorten the life of somebody who is terminally ill as doctors who are deeply religious – and doctors with strong religious convictions are less likely even to discuss such decisions with the patient, according to Professor Clive Seale, from the centre for health sciences at Barts and the London school of medicine and dentistry…
The chances of a doctor making an ethically controversial decision expected or partly intended to end life was largely unrelated to the doctor’s ethnicity, but was strongly related to his or her specialisation. Specialised doctors in hospitals were almost 10 times as likely to report this than palliative care specialists.
Well, that takes a little unpacking. Patients or surrogates should always be in the loop on medical treatment or withdrawal decisions: Doctors should not “decide” to end life-sustaining treatment that is biologically efficacious–and of course, they should never kill. Similarly, they should not decide to force unwanted treatment on patients–either through omission or commission–who would rather let nature take its course.
My take: I have noticed in the assisted suicide debate that many proponents are atheist or Unitarian. But that certainly isn’t a universal. Religious people also support hastening death and unilaterally terminating treatment based on quality of life judgmentalism, while many atheists (such as Nat Hentoff) and clear secularists, oppose hastening death either through imposition of futile care theory, health care rationing, or participating in direct actions to kill.
I think it would be offensive in the extreme to ask a physician about his or her religious beliefs. They are quite irrelevant and none of the patient’s business. I don’t care if a physician is a Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, or secularist. What matters is that he or she accept human exceptionalism and adheres to the Hippocratic tradition of valuing each individual patient equally, giving each optimal care, and never participating in the intentional taking of human life. Unfortunately, these days, those are questions that can no longer be taken for granted and hence, they are issues about which wise patients will inquire.
August 30th, 2010 | 11:05 am
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August 30th, 2010 | 11:21 am
Wouldn’t it better to advise people to inquire if their physicians have had the relevent training, expertise, team members, and experience – rather than worrying about the physician’s opinions on something as nebulous as “human exceptionalism”?
I agree with Seale. If patients are comfortable enough with their physicians, and if time and other factors permit, I would encourage them to ask about the physician’s faith. Under many settings it is not offensive to ask.
If someone incorporates mythology and disproved beliefs into their practice of allopathic medicine, why shouldn’t the patient have a right to know?
I favor physicians who have no faith, favoring instead to accept only evidence and data. A necessary requirement being that such physicians are continually, relentlessly monitoring data and evidence.
A follow up answer would be if physicians who embrace religious mythology are more likely to engage in useless medical procedures for terminally ill patients – and what the costs of such treatment are – with demonstrated evidence that such procedures did not prolong life or reduce suffering (or maybe they did, in which case they aren’t “useless”).
Anyways, who wouldn’t be in a hurry to reach the pearly gates – so, shouldn’t the atheists be favored?
Wesley J. Smith Reply:
August 30th, 2010 at 11:38 am
Well, of course, David. But that kind of thing was beyond the point of the blog. In fact, I wrote a book more than twenty years ago, The Doctor Book: A Nuts and Bolts Guide to Patient Power, dealing with those very issues of competence, training, etc.
August 30th, 2010 | 12:31 pm
I’d much rather have an atheist doctor that deals with facts and not superstitions when it comes to healing. Atleast they wouldn’t prolong the suffering if I was terminal. BTW, these headlines I keep seeing for this article in different publications are very misleading. Way to beat on rational people that don’t have imaginary friends.
August 30th, 2010 | 1:47 pm
I am having trouble understanding the picture in the post and finding in the story where it is discussed.
Wesley J. Smith Reply:
August 30th, 2010 at 2:06 pm
The picture is merely a chart of the world’s religious beliefs that I obtained from Google images. It is not directly related to the story in question. Sorry if it was too obscure.
August 30th, 2010 | 2:06 pm
I see a lot of people walking this planet that were told a number of years ago that they didn’t have much longer to live or that they would never walk again. Strangely the doctors who play at being god have no better track record then the Drs who call in the power of prayer to help in their attempt to cure folks.
August 30th, 2010 | 2:08 pm
I should have noted that the atheist Dr just gets to bury his mistakes quicker .
August 30th, 2010 | 3:37 pm
Donnie, I had a similar thought, in that the atheist/agnostic physicians may be less risk-averse. They may be more willing to try a long-shot treatment. I knew an extremely rational woman who went through a bone marrow transplant procedure knowing that there was a 90% chance it would kill her, because she knew without the transplant she’d be gone in a few months anyway. Unfortunately, she lost the gamble.
I think people like her fall at both ends of the spectrum. The rationally driven atheists will take any chance that might save them, while the religious may have enough faith in the afterlife that the risk doesn’t seem so great.
August 30th, 2010 | 5:36 pm
Hello Padraig. My dad always held strong to the belief that the best way to live was to not worry about dying. He maintained that belief right to the end of his life. My mom passed away 2002 at quarter to one am New Years day.
My dad had diabetic complications that led to the a surgeon telling him in Sept of 2003 that he was going to need to make a decision to have his remaining leg amputated above the knee. Dad told the surgeon to get her done as he could feel gangrene setting in. Dr told dad his chances of surviving were minimal because of all his diabetic complications. Dad looked up at the surgeon and smiled. Told the Dr that if he woke up and my son Donnie is at my bed side, that is a good thing. If my wife is standing before me that is also a good thing. The surgeon knew da’s wife had died 8 months earlier. Dad noted that laying here worrying about choice is not an option. Lets see how you and God play out what is left of my hand. The Dr. smiled back and said “Mr Mac Leod you just made me think you do have a chance at making it through this operation after all.”
Dad survived the operation only to get hospital staff infection in the wound. He died the day my mom was buried the year before but he had no regrets about fighting till God called him home. I expect to approach my death with as much faith as my dad. I hope to have medical staff that don’t think they are god with a choice to tell me they figure I should use them to commit suicide, at their hands.
As a side note my dad had a stroke three years earlier and the palliative care anesthesiologist had enough drugs in him to knock off a horse, according to my dad’s, family Doctor. One day when dad had bounced back a bit, he voiced his disgust that he had family home and he would rather pain then being in La La Land. She told dad that she was helping to guide him to his death as painlessly as possible. My dad asked her if she had made the trip often herself. Then he told her to give God a chance to decide when He would call him Home.. I pulled in dad’s family doctor at that time and he kicked palliative care out of dads case. I have no regrets and neither did the surgeon or the family Dr..
August 30th, 2010 | 6:41 pm
I don’t care what my doctor believes, as long as he or she doesn’t hasten MY death without my consent and lets me make my OWN decisions about when to stop care if I am ever terminal. I also want my doctor to be hopeful and to be open about the treatments available, even if they think I will die soon. I should be able to be aware of all my options and make my own choice.
August 30th, 2010 | 8:55 pm
Usually, the principal reason that people go into medicine (I know, because I’ve had good friends, who have) is, they care about reducing the suffering of humans. It simply doesn’t seem to matter whether they’re atheistic, or some type of theist. And I believe that statistics will reflect my own anectdotal experience.
As Padraig pointed out, maybe religious doctors will focus on the afterlife, thereby not wanting to prolong life here on earth, and atheistic doctors, believing this this life is all there is, may want to prolong this life to the ultimate limit.
As Safepres points out, as long as the doctor respects the wishes of her patient, it’s irrelevant what she believes.
There’s this tiresome ploy, played by both theists, and atheists, that the other side isn’t to be “trusted” with moral issues. there’s no credible evidence to indicate that being a member of either metatphysical commitment, predisposes one to immoral behavior.
August 30th, 2010 | 11:44 pm
You are right a physician might find such questionings offensive Wesley, but it is essentially acting as a proxy (and sadly an inadequate one really) for the information, as you note, that they really want to know.
The problem of course, is that the real question, “do they embrace a quality of life ethic or a sanctity of life ethic”, is a difficult one to ask and one you might not get a straight answer on.
So patients resort to some less effective proxy that they are at least likely to be able to use to make some sort of determination on.
Jason
August 31st, 2010 | 6:08 am
I would hope that my physician be in tune with not playing god. I would hope that my physician understand the true message within the story of the Good Samaritan & do his best to help his neighbor while recognizing the higher power of God to give miraculous recovery to a patient or for God to mercifully take the life of a patient without making the Doctor feel he must..
September 1st, 2010 | 1:20 pm
My hope is that as each new day presents itself I am neither too afraid of life to live or too afraid of death to die.
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