Religion
Related: About this forumAmerican Choices Around Death Differ By Religion And Race, Survey
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/21/death-choices-new-study_n_4317779.html?utm_hp_ref=religionReligion News Service | By Cathy Lynn Grossman
Posted: 11/21/2013 1:04 pm EST
Jonathan Kirn via Getty Images
WASHINGTON (RNS) Death may be inevitable, but one in three Americans including most blacks and Hispanics want doctors to never quit fighting it.
And that number has nearly doubled in 23 years, a new survey finds.
In 1990, 15 percent of U.S. adults said doctors should do everything possible for a patient, even in the face of incurable illness and pain. Today, 31 percent hold that view, according to a report released Thursday (Nov. 21) by the Pew Research Centers Religion & Public Life Project.
The majority of U.S. adults (66 percent) still say there are circumstances when a patient should be allowed to die. At the same time, however, the never-say-die view calling for nonstop aggressive treatment has increased across every religion, race, ethnicity and level of education.
more at link
rug
(82,333 posts)cbayer
(146,218 posts)and there can be extremely divergent views from within a single family.
From my reading of this, I don't see a lot of difference between believers and non-believers, though there are some differences from one religion to another.
Silent3
(15,357 posts)I've written it into my will that I don't want to be kept on life support if I'm in a persistent vegetative state, or otherwise severely brain damaged.
That said, I'm be willing to put up with a fair amount of pain and disability to just keep going as long as my mind is still mostly intact, especially given that I have a certain amount of technological optimism about the treatments and cures that might be developed the longer I manage to stay alive.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)The situation arises far too often when a family or even a single member of a family fights to keep someone on support when it is clear their condition is hopeless and irreversible.