My question is this: why do "those who pray" prefer more aggressive end-of-life care? Why should someone who believes death is only a portal to another life (presumably a better one) seek to prolong a painful life here?
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Yet Another Religious Study
I refer all of you to this story on the BBC. The gist of it is this: out of 345 terminally-ill cancer patients, those who prayed most often and categorized themselves as people for whom "religion was the most important thing that kept [them] going" were more likely to receive "aggressive" end-of-life care. Put another way, those who describe themselves as religious wanted everything that could be done to be done in order to prolong life - even at a cost of reduced quality of life (being kept alive by machines, forceful resuscitation, etc - things which other studies have shown to be immensely physically and psychologically stressful on both the patient and the patient's family and caregivers). The BBC waxed a bit philosophic by saying, "It is unclear why those who pray prefer more aggressive end-of-life care," but they didn't actually make an argument either way. In fact, the conclusion which is drawn is merely this: "These findings merit further discussion within religious communities, and consideration from those providing pastoral counsel to terminally ill patients with cancer."
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4 comments:
Just a thought. Are these the same people who take the Bible literally?
This boggled my mind, I have to say.
Maybe we are assuming that “those who pray" in this study believe death is a portal to another life. It could be that one of the reasons they are so fervent in pray is that they are still searching for the answer – looking for peace of mind. They prolong their lives because they aren’t confident the next life will be peaceful.
At any rate – it is still unsettling.
@Teddy and Heather - it's true, we don't know whether or not "praying often" can be equated with any other metric of religiosity or spirituality (if they attended services regularly before being admitted to the hospital, if they take the Bible literally, if they believe they are going to hell). Coach made a similar comment to me earlier. In it, he passed along to me a quote from Robert E. Lee: "there is no need to ask God for help while in battle, for the Lord is aware of my deeds and the direction he sends my soul is already determined." Perhaps frequency of "vocal" prayer has no bearing on an individual's communion with God.
To quote Coach: "they're all fakers." To paraphrase Coach a second time: "on second thought, maybe they're praying because they want to get out of life every last little bit. They're fighters to the end." I am willing to bet that both are true, depending completely on the individual.
Some individuals are fakers. They shout and wave their hands back and forth at church services, but - consciously or not - they don't believe anything they've heard, they merely attached the words to the emotional response they were having. These people will pray to their deathbeds because they have no true knowledge (no assurance) of what awaits them on the other side. They are fakers because they never truly searched and never truly experienced the meaning of this life, and so will fight to the bitter end to hold onto life, that they might have one more chance and discovering its secret.
Then there are those who pray because, for them, it truly is communion with God. They have experienced life and know what meaning it has, and also that that meaning is transient. That we are meant to go on to something more. They pray, not to hold death at bay because they fear it, but to prolong life that they might do as much as they can with the few moments they have left. I doubt they are praying for themselves in their last moments.
Just trying to get you riled up. Thoughts?
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