Religion, medicine and death

HOW do a person's religious beliefs influence his attitude to terminal illness? The answer is surptising. You might expect the religious to accept death as God's will and, while not hurrying towards it, not to seek to prolong(延长) their lives using heroic and often traumatic(外伤的) medical procedures. Atheists(无神论者), by contrast, have nothing to look forward to after death, so they might be expected to cling to life.

In fact, it is the other way round--at least according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association by Andrea Phelps and colleagues at the Dana--Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. Religious people seem to use their faith to cope with the pain and degradation(退化) that "aggressive" medical treatment entails, even though such treatment rarely makes much odds.

Dr Phelps and her team followed the last months of 345 cancer patients. The participants were not asked directly how religious they were but, rather, about how they had to cope with difficult situations by, for example, "seeking God's love and care". the score from this questionnaire was compared with their requests for such things as the use of mechanicam ventilation to keep them alive and resuscitation to bring them back from the dead.

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religious ppl seem curiously reluctant to meet their maker.

无聊了。