Medical Ethics

Attended a conference on Medical Ethics from a Jewish perspective. The discussion was flawed from the outset. No one had the courage to ask the hard question, namely, is there still a place for religion or personal religious belief in the practice of medicine? If we accept that medicine is a scientific discipline, shouldn't our goal be that of striving towards more precise science? And if so, how can we allow religion to dictate critical issues including birth, abortion, end of life, terminal care, palliative care, etc?

I don't intend to sound crass. And I am not against religion. But assume that you are an ethical Jewish doctor who believes strongly that life is for the living. You are treating a terminally ill patient who has no known scientific chance for any quality of life. You would consider it a favor and an honor to help that person die with dignity. If you were someone from a traditional Christian background you may be torn between "allowing God's Will" to intervene and helping that person move to a "better place", e.g. heaven. If you were involved with a Guru and practiced an eastern religion, you would be thinking that the "life force" is only temporarily in the body you are treating, and is perhaps only one stepping stone along the great path. The concept of reincarnation might be guiding your judgement.

Do you see how naive and/or presumptious it is to bring one's religious attitudes into a scientific arena? It is time we had the courage to park the mysticism at the door and attend to the illness and the patient with as full scientific objectivity as we are capapble of.

Newton stopped in his analyses because he was stumped in his mathematics, and so ascribed that which he did not know to "God". In fact, he spent a significant amount of his time trying to "figure God out". Subsequent scientists and mathemeticians were able to advance his ideas, once new concepts were understood, and "God" no longer was necessary to explain the missing phenomena.

We medical scientists must accept that just because there remain unknowns it is NOT "in God's hands". We must have the courage to practice our science and the strength, even if we are "of faith" to leave that faith at the door, and act as men and women of reason, when dealing with life and death.