New York -- Some 14 percent of physicians in the U.S. will favor their religious beliefs over the well-being of their patients and refrain from administering procedures that their religion is opposed to, says a study published recently in the New England Journal of Medicine.
"These physicians won't tell the patient that these procedures -- such as abortion, contraception, contraception for teenagers without parental consent and terminal sedation -- even exist," says Dr. Richard Sloan, professor of Behavioral Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry of Columbia University Medical Center, New York. "They won't tell patients that they have legal options in those areas and they won't refer these patient to other physicians who will deliver those procedures."
"With 14 percent of physicians influenced by, and acting on, their religious beliefs, that translates to about 40 million Americans treated by those physicians," Dr. Sloan adds. And that's not counting the other ways in which religion creeps into health-care delivery, such as the belief that prayer will aid a patient's recovery. "The claims for a scientific basis for the impact of religious devotion on health is a complete misuse of science -- and evidence of junk science," the professor states.
Dr. Sloan, the author of Blind Faith: The Unholy Alliance of Religion and Medicine, will discuss, at the March 27th meeting of the New York City Atheists association, how serious ethical issues are raised by these attempts to bring religious practices into clinical medicine.
The intrusion of religion into medicine raises ethical issues of manipulation, coercion and invasion of privacy -- not to mention actually causing harm -- "all of which are completely antithetical to the role that physicians are supposed to play in clinical medicine," Dr. Sloan says.
Come and ask Dr. Sloan how we can achieve a totally scientific and unbiased health care delivery system in this country.
WHEN:
Thursday, March 27 at 6:30 p.m.
WHERE:
SLC Conference Center
352 Seventh Ave. (Bet. 29th & 30th St.) 16th floor
New York, NY
COST:
$5: donation toward the cost of our conference room.
For More Information:
Jane Everhart
Director of Communications
New York City Atheists
212-879-2687
Kenneth Bronstein
President
New York City Atheists
212-535-7425
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Earlier:
Washington State Has The Right To Require Pharmacists To Fill Doctors' Prescriptions, Says Americans United
Humanists Join Legal Brief in Pharmacist Controversy
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Doctors' Orders
