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May 22, 2007
Spirituality and Health
Over half of US doctors surveyed report believing that religion and spirituality have a significant influence on health and that a supernatural being intervenes at times. Sloan has tried to debunk the latter of these beliefs, if not the former. (more on that some other time)
What is interesting for the contranemesis is the recognition of cultural iatrogenesis that has occurred. Dr. Curlin, himself a practicing internist as well as ethicist, who has several related studies to his credit, distinguishes between areas where religion is more likely to affect decisions and where is does not.
In many cases, Curlin emphasizes, religion does not affect medical decisions. All emergency-room physicians treat broken legs and acute pneumonia using standard protocols. Religion comes into play at what he calls the “margins,” areas that until 50 or 60 years ago were not considered part of the medical profession: end-of-life issues, sexual and reproductive health, and mental health. As long as medicine continues to reach beyond broken bones and acute disease into “areas in which people disagree,” physicians will, he argues, make moral judgments. And those judgments will be colored by religious, spiritual, or secular beliefs.
The "margins" are areas that were "medicalized" by the hubris.
Cultural iatrogenesis | By Robert Maddox | 06:42 PM