Medical Ethics – Religion and Healthcare Ethics
RELIGION AND HEALTHCARE ETHICS
Theology and the Discipline of Bioethics
What is the role of theology in the discipline of bioethics?
The Faith Community’s Role in Supporting and Empowering Persons with Mental Illness
Mental illnesses are diseases that stymie the creative thrust of the human spirit because they affect one’s ability to think, feel and relate in the community. Charles Lackamp argues that mentally ill persons should be liberated from the biological, chemical, hereditary, emotional and environmental hindrances to these capacities.
Religion, Sex and Holiness
Is there a connection between religious believe and human sexuality? Do our beliefs about God influence how we think about the ethics of sexual activity? Do our religious traditions suggest values by which we should orient our most intimate conduct? Rabbi Mark Levin discusses how Judaism provides an understanding of human sexuality grounded in a view about how God expects us to treat one another.
Healthcare, Suffering and Theology: Severe Sovereign, Romantic Sovereign and Process Approaches
Because contemporary healthcare is inextricably linked with human pain and suffering, it is an arena in which the meaning of such experiences is questioned by patients, families and healthcare providers. This essay suggests a way in which theological dimensions of suffering and healthcare can be envisioned so that partial justice is done to the reality of God and God’s relationship to suffering patients, their families and the professionals who care for them.
Scripture and Medical Ethics
Allen Verhey acknowledges the problems of reading Scripture as relevant to medical ethics and asserts that, despite these problems, religious communities will test their faithfulness by reading Scripture, that can be understood as a “practice” where the good is remembrance and the standards of excellence for the practice of holiness and sanctification, fidelity and creativity, discipline and discernment.
Abortion: Law, Religion and Society
This essay examines ways that legal, religious and social issues are intertwined in the abortion issue.
How Religious Values Affect Medical Care of Jehovah’s Witnesses
Jehovah’s Witnesses accept the Bible as God’s Word, a sure guide in all areas of life. They are trained to use biblical laws and principles to make decisions, recognizing that obedience to God is necessary for His granting the gift of eternal life. While Witnesses do seek medical care, for religious reasons, they refuse blood transfusions. This article explores how this value affects medical care.
Christian Science and Healthcare
This article explains some of the moral, theological and practical bases upon which Christian Scientists make their healthcare decisions toward bridging the knowledge gap between healthcare professionals and Christian Scientists.
What is a Good Death?
Rabbi Gerald Kane presents traditional and current Jewish thinking about the quality of life and the reality of death and discusses the difficult choices patients, families and healthcare providers must make when death approaches.
How to Find God in a Children’s Hospital
Dane Sommer explores the spirituality of children facing sickness and death.
