[Buddha-l] Religion and aggressive treatment

[Curt Steinmetz]

"A vast majority of patients, religious or not, did not want heroic 
measures taken. Still, 11.3 percent of the most religious patients 
received mechanical ventilation during the last week of life, compared 
with only 3.6 percent of the least religious."

The above is from the NYT article. So we are talking about less than 15% 
of all patients, in a study composed of 345 people. Of these 345 people 
("most of them belonging to Christian denominations") who all face 
similar circumstances, only 51 of them chose what the researches deemed 
"heroic measures" - and of these 39 were among "the most religious" of 
the group and the other 12 were among "the least religious".

I don't think there are going to be any flights to Stockholm being 
booked as a result of such momentous results.

In the BBC online version of the same story there is this little tidbit 
that the NYT could not find space to fit in:

"The researchers in this latest study stressed that religion had been 
widely associated with an improved ability to cope with the stress of 
illness."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7949111.stm

Curt

Weng-Fai Wong wrote:
> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/18/health/research/18faith.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
>
> What is the Buddhist position on this, you think?
>
> W.F. Wong
>
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