Pious 'fight death the hardest'

[emad]

People with strong religious beliefs appear to want doctors to do everything they can to keep them alive as death approaches, a US study suggests.

Researchers followed 345 patients with terminal cancer up until their deaths.

Those who regularly prayed were more than three times more likely to receive intensive life-prolonging care than those who relied least on religion.

The team's report was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

It suggests that such care, including resuscitation, may make death more uncomfortable.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7949111.stm

I blame all that hellfiredamnation quackery....

[varkam]

1. That's very interesting, especially considering the number of

devout people who are vocally certain that they will be going to heaven. It's doubly interesting that people who were not devout were more likely to just accept the end.

K&R

[aquamarina]

2. Oh the I.R.O.N.Y.

[hedgehog]

3. It may mean that non-believers give up sooner while believers

trust that a miracle will occur.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

4. That hasn't been my experience among liberal believers

only among the hellfire and brimstone types.

Way back in 1963, my very Lutheran family was angry when the nursing home staff put my 93-year-old comatose great-grandfather on a respirator after he stopped breathing.

Just last year, a long-time member of my church, one of those lively and active eightysomethings, was told that she had advanced stomach cancer. She chose to refuse treatment and was dead in a month.

A couple of years ago, another member who had terminal cancer was heard to joke with a member who has AIDS about being future neighbors in the church's columbarium.

In my tradition, I've heard of far more people who accept their fate gracefully than those who fight it to the last breath.

However, among a lot of the fundie religions, despite their emphasis on being "saved," their theology seems to see salvation as revokable, something that can be taken away if they've committed the least little sin. I can see where they would fear death.

[Warpy]

12. I've seen that, too, in 25 years in the nursing trenches

The people who claim to love Jebus more than any of the rest of us are the ones who least want to meet up with him.

People in mainstream religions tend to be comfortable with themselves and don't have the same level of fear of a rigid and judgmental god. People in the hard core fundy churches are taught a certain amount of self loathing combined with a great deal of fear. They have a much tougher time, on average.

[pleah]

5. That's because they have learned to fear death.

Even though Jesus told them if they believe in him and that they should not fear death. But, a lifetime of preaching fear takes its toll.

[Why Syzygy]

6. My dad would have slightly skewed the results.

He decided ahead of time that he didn't want any heroic efforts.
Even the doctors at the hospital tried to get him to take oxygen, and he refused.
I wish he had. I was a little bit angry that he and my mother had made that choice.

[RaleighNCDUer]

13. At least he could make the decision himself.

We had to decide for my dad, who died of Alzheimers.

I can understand your anger on this though - I'm not sure I could classify taking oxygen as a 'heroic' measure. Seems to me that's just standard care.

[Why Syzygy]

15. My dad didn't

really want to live if he couldn't work, imo. He got his last paycheck while in hospital those last two weeks. It meant that much to him. After radiation, and living with a stomach tube for a year, he was tired. Not having oxygen, though, meant he became incoherent. I had to tell my mother at that point, NO MORE VISITORS! They didn't need to see him like that. He never lost his smile, though, or forgot anyone's name, no matter how long it had been since he last saw them.

You just never forget, do you?

[rrneck]

7. Everybody wants to go to heaven

but nobody wants to die.

Guilt is the source of a tremendous revenue stream in this country. Greed is another. Read: prosperity gospel.

[kestrel91316]

8. Fundies appear to have bought into the whole fire-and-brimstone thing,

but don't really believe that all it takes to get into heaven is saying the Magic Jesus Words (TM). They know in their hearts that they are NOT the perfect Christians they hold themselves out to be, and that their actions have been les than Christian.

[Speck Tater]

9. Not cause -> effect, but cause -> effect + effect

They don't seek to prolong life BECAUSE they are religious, rather, they:

1. are religious because they fear death more than normal AND
2. seek to prolong life because they fear death more than normal.

The cause of BOTH effects is an exaggerated fear of death.

Rationally, it makes sense to fear dying, as a process, but it makes no sense at all to fear being dead. After all, you were essentially dead for billions of years before you were born, and it wasn't a traumatic experience, was it?

[Jim__]

10. It's too bad the article doesn't talk about motivation.

Probably the original paper doesn't go into motivation either. I am curious to know why, according to this study, religious people tend to be more tenacious about hanging on to life.

[Why Syzygy]

11. It seems like a strange research study.

http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/301/11/1140

Objective To determine the way religious coping relates to the use of intensive life-prolonging end-of-life care among patients with advanced cancer.

I'm also curious as to what "age" and "race/ethnicity" have to do with determining religious coping.

Analyses were adjusted for demographic factors significantly associated with positive religious coping and any end-of-life outcome at P < .05 (ie, age and race/ethnicity).

[BurtWorm]

14. No theists in cancer wards?

I'm not surprised.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/scienceblogs/pharyngula/~3/suTIZ90zBYY/those_who_believe_in_heaven_ar.php

[Why Syzygy]

16. Inaccurate.

You obviously haven't read the thread before posting.

[Kitty Herder]

17. If I believed in the God of the Old Testament, I'd be scared to meet him, too!

He's cruel, angry, jealous, petty and all-powerful. He'd be scary to meet no matter how "righteous" a person has been.