God vs. Medicine

[peacetraveler22]

I'm not a believer, but have been surrounded by religion my entire life. As a young child, I was christened Catholic and routinely attended mass. The whole ritual intrigued me. Listen to the man in the robe sing, stand in line, put a wafer in my mouth during communion, and then kneel on a hard bench and pray to some mysterious figure called "God." I never felt any connection to the process, or any solace from prayer. At age 10, my parents sent me to a conservative Baptist school and I remained there until graduation. I don't have much to say about the experience except that it completely turned me away from religion. To this day, many of my friends are deeply religious and I respect their faith. But what happens when religious beliefs become so extreme that they endanger the life of a child? This saga currently is playing out in America.

The child at the center of the controversy resides in an Amish community in Ohio. I've previously written about the Amish, and this sect holds a special place in my heart. You can read my views on them here, in a post that was written before most of you subscribed to my blog. Many Amish completely refuse medical treatment based on religious grounds, but in this case the young girl received chemotherapy for a short period of time to treat an aggressive form of leukemia. After seeing the side effects, the parents refused further treatment and the hospital petitioned the Courts to intervene. In their view, they are morally and legally obligated to ensure the child receives proper medical care. Without it, she faces almost no chance of survival. Yet parents have a fundamental right to raise kids as they see fit. Courts in America rarely intervene with parenting decisions unless there is clear evidence the parents are unfit to make decisions. This usually arises when parents are drug addicts, alcoholics or mentally impaired. The judge in this case issued a temporary order a few weeks ago authorizing the hospital to continue treatment until the matter is officially resolved in the Courts.

There have been instances where children have died as a result of fundamentalist Christian parents who refused any forms of medicine or treatment, instead trusting the outcome to God and faith. In most cases, the parents are criminally charged with murder or involuntary manslaughter after the child's death. You can read about one example in this article. Of course the issue also arises with terminally ill adults who wish to die gracefully rather than suffer a painful and slow death. I'm sure everyone has heard of Jack Kevorkian, "Dr. Death," who assisted hundreds of patients with medically induced suicides. His famous quote is "dying is not a crime." It was later determined that some of his patients were not terminally ill or even suffering from extreme pain. He was convicted of murder and served only eight years. However, as a result of his actions, American Courts were forced to take up the issue of voluntary death. Physician assisted suicide is now legal in four States (Vermont, Washington, Oregon and Montana). The legal principles in each State differ. For example, in Montana the physician may only assist with the suicide if a Court issues an order after evaluating all facts in the case. Other States require a waiting period of 10 - 18 days to ensure the patient is not making a harsh or sporadic decision.

I've watched two relatives die very slow and painful deaths - one from cancer and one from liver disease. Both bound to their homes and beds in later stages of the illness, with hospice nurses visiting them two to three times a day to try to make the pain bearable. All light in their eyes completely gone with the realization that death was knocking on their door. Immense sadness when they passed, but also relief and comfort to know they were no longer suffering.

Insomnia has recently hit hard and I lay awake at night thinking about this. Should children be forced to die because they have extremist parents? At what point should the government and/or Courts intervene? Should all States permit physician assisted suicide? In these situations, we walk a very delicate line between morality, ethics and religion. Between science and faith.

Thoughts?

And to all my Jewish readers, Happy New Year! :)

Comments

[peacetraveler22.livejournal.com]

America has generally taken the same approach as you outline when it comes to protecting the life of a child in the face of extremist parents refusing medicine. Religious beliefs are based in irrationality, as there is nothing tangible or concrete at the foundation. Pure leap of faith in the abstract and unknown, although some "feel" God's presence. For them I'm happy but it has never been me, and obviously not you given that you're an atheist.

I hope you stay dry this weekend! I see a lot of rain in Moscow recently.

[moonrainbow.livejournal.com]

Well, I do believe in secular societies and secular states. Faith is a personal thing between a man and the God, and there shouldn't be any state institutions that prescribe you to believe specific things in specific ways and punish you for not believing hard enough.

I know people who have faith deep inside. There are not many of them - maybe one out of five or ten, they are not openly religious and don't even visit church services every Sunday. You can hear their faith when upon leaving their house you hear them saying something like: "We should meet more often to have fun, I am certain He loves joyful and happy people".

But I grew up as a materialist and atheist. When you know how complicated and interesting the physical science is, how matter and life interact to create endless diversity - this symphony of nature has endless complexity and can't be created by a single act of creation. It can only evolve by many small acts of creation that happen under the guidance of the physical laws.

The weather in Moscow turned to fall. It has been rainy and windy from Wednesday evening till Saturday morning - more than for two days, and the temperatures were 10 to 12 degrees Celcius. Very uncomfortable. Things went a little warmer today, but still it was +15 at most. Forecasts expect sunny weather with cold nights from next week onward. The golden fall is coming.