Doctors who are atheist or agnostic are twice as likely to make decisions that could end the lives of their terminally ill patients, compared to doctors who are very religious, according to a new study in Britain.
Dr Clive Seale, a professor at Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, conducted a random mail survey of more than 3,700 doctors across Britain, of whom 2,923 reported on how they took care of their last terminal patient.
Many of the doctors surveyed were neurologists, doctors specializing in the care of the elderly, and palliative care, though other specialists like family doctors, were also included.
Doctors who described themselves as “extremely” or “very nonreligious” were nearly twice as likely to report having made decisions like providing continuous deep sedation, which could accelerate a patient’s death.
It’s always been among the most preposterous of church positions that death for terminally ill patients must come naturally, even if it means extended pain and expense for the patient and the family. Laws against DWD are a perfect example of the church inflicting itself on the lives of unbelievers (although religion is not the only supporter of such laws), and I am glad the atheist doctors are ignoring or avoiding such a backwards mentality.
These doctors did not create the life so who gives them the right to take it.This is Nazism,Communism which comes as no suprise since they are the two great religions of atheism.How can you have death with diginity when the doctor has no respect for human life.
Wait – what? Life isn’t ‘created’, it’s a continuation of the species.
Hold on – you’ve been on this blog for what? 4? 5 years? & you don’t know that
A. atheism ISN’T A RELIGION, &
B. The Nazis WERE NOT ATHEISTS.
That you haven’t learned these facts indicates that you don’t have any capacity for learning.
Does ‘diginity’ stand for ‘digital dignity’, or has that diet of a 12 pack of tall boys for breakfast finally eroded the rest of your brain cells?
raisin brings up a good point…..would the doctor extend his compassion if he did create that life…..
Once again KA and others here miss the big picture.We have turned our backs on the gods of our forefathers Odin,Zeus,Perun,Mithras and sundry other gods.And the result we now treat each other like chattel property.Well i am not a pig or a jackass to be worked or eaten.There is something special inside us and i’m not talking about gas.I am talking about the divine spark.
Phreedm at least has a clue even if he has fallen for a jewish death cult.
A-ha. I knew you were an undercover theist.
Uh-oh, raisin’s moved on to the harder drugs now.
No, no, no…you haven’t been paying attention. Phreddy’s wrong 99.9999% of the time.
So does god, the ultimate moral power, do a better job of showing “respect for human life?” Perhaps if that was true, he/she/it could do something about malaria or cancer. Or are you saying we should strive to be better than god?
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Also, both the Nazi and Communist movements made government the religion, complete with symbology (swastika, hammer/sickle, star), rituals (book burning, goose stepping, military rallies, salutes, songs and slogans), and narratives (Jewish conspiracies, class conflict, outside threats). Note how the portraits of Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, Mao, and North Korea’s dynasty of dictators resemble the portraits of the Madonna that many Catholics keep. These movements were and are nationalist religions that coexisted with Christianity and Eastern traditions.
These doctors did not create the life so who gives them the right to take it.
So you are saying someone can only rightly by killed by their parents?
Laws against crosses on public land are a perfect example of atheists inflicting themsevles upon the lives of believers
Whoops…wrong thread
On a more serious note i do think people should have the right to death with diginity.I think this should be handled lawmaking wise at the state level to best reflect the culture and mores of each state.
diginity should be dignity.
It’s hard to take you seriously when you typo out of control all the time.
KA
Typo or no typo i think this should be addressed at state not federal level by the voters or their lawmakers.I also think with proper safeguards so a single doctor doesn’t play god most would support allowing death with dignity laws.This is a heartrending issue,you have a loved one dying slowly in discomfort if not outright agony sometimes over months other cases hours.And your emotions are a stormy sea when they pass.Relief their agony is over, guilt for feeling relief they are gone.Been there and done that and only hope that no extra burden is place on the dying and the loved ones they leave behind.
have a good weekend
What’s amazing to me is how naive Dave is on this topic…
In 1996 a second report on euthanasia in Holland (for 1995) was published. In the interim the number of cases where a doctor had made a decision with the intention to hasten death without the patients express request had risen from 15% to almost 20% of the total annual mortality rate of the Netherlands. At the same time, the number of cases of euthanasia, using the narrow Dutch definition, rose from 2,300 to over 3000, a 30% increase in just 5 years.
http://www.euthanasia.com/netherlands.html
http://www.euthanasia.com/hollchart.html
Odd how one who doesn’t believe in God, believes in letting doctors play god when it comes to medical care…
I’m sure most on this board thought that Palin was over the top when she claimed “death panels” were written into the Health Legislation that passed this summer. We all know that, that’s exactly what’s going to happen due to the financial crisis in the world. Proper health care will be provided for those who are healthy and still serving a purpose to those in power, and not to the elderly or the chronically ill.
Is there anyone on this board that honestly believes the government would provide the same type of care that Ted Kennedy received, during their last years of life? If you do I have a bridge to sell you…
So atheists don’t value life the way believers do….and? It’s a prime example of the hopelessness atheist have in regards to life. They only believe in the here and now, and what they can see. If science can’t fix it…well, sorry, you lose.
And yet, non-believers mock believers for clinging to Hope.
If doctors broke the intent of the law, then they need to be prosecuted….religion can go fuck itself if it thinks it can hijack my life by denying me dignity on the basis of some made up bullshit phreeky….you have no credibility here when you believe in a magical daddy and a crazy promise about afterlife…..
so believers are more concerned about an afterlife and atheist are concerned about all that is life….
Phreedm
I agree that gov’t death panels will become a reality used to control costs.Yet until recent times no panel was needed to kill off people because medicine wasn’t very advanced.The quandry seems to be we have learned how to extend life but haven’t learn how to extend quality of life.
have a good weekend
How do you ask a comatose vegetable with little or no brain function for a request?
Healthcare is already rationed based on who has the most cash / best insurance. That’s why death rates from preventable diseases are much higher among the poor – they don’t get to see doctors when they need them. Is that fair? Well, it’s not going to change. Insurance marketplaces for the uninsured that were set up in the new law will still charge $ and if you don’t have it, you go without. Is that comforting?
What “hope” is there in being in an irreversible vegetative brain-dead state for years, bankrupting your family and/or country, and using up resources that actually could have saved someone else’s life, only to die in the end? Why do people who believe in an afterlife try so desperately to avoid it? A lack of faith perhaps? I’m sure you’ll say that prayer could revive the brain dead someday, but hey, if that’s the case, why bother with medicine at all?
offtopic
Why are we taxpayers paying for camp david if our president is going everywhere but there.At a time of record forecloures,unemployment the president could be a littleless tone deaf.I don’t begrudge him timeoff
but he could show some better judgement.
What I always find so ironic and perplexing is that it’s the religious folk who are so deeply and intractably self-deluded into believing that they’re going to spend eternity in paradise and be reunited with all of their departed loved ones who fight tooth and nail and pull out all the stops to prolong their lives when the inevitability of death is upon them.
There are no coincidences in life…
How appropriate that Dave post this thread when to our north the following happened…
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=196533
Wow Dave…a bureaucrat playing god. Imagine being told medical treatment is being withheld until the patient can ask for it. YIKES!!!
The glenn beck rally has been great wish you were all here.The crowd was really moved when beck said today america turns back to god.All hell broke lose though when he began to pray to Perun in a loud voice.Got go do another run for more vodka, trying to work up my nerve to kiss palin.
so raisin goes goo goo for a beauty pageant winner…..a 44 year old that got pregnant while being a sitting Governor….a Governor that insulted all other Governors, past and present, when she tried to glorify the act of quitting her job….
I think its fear that really drives the crazies at Beck/Palin rallies….Beck incites these idiots by using fear….and it doesnt take very much…because people like raisin are already fearful of that pesky devil thats out there lurking in the shadows…..
Wouldn’t that make Raisin an adulterer? Don’t turn your back on god like us heathens, Raisin!
Charlie,Beagle
All joking aside people like beck/palin don’t speak for all of us to the right of center.The media would have you believe they do.The tea party crowd will fade because they are mostly older folks.Hard to protest when your going back and forth to the doctor.The left though ignores growing debt problem at its own peril though and what the gov’t gives the gov’t can take.
The “tea party” is indistinguishable from the “Republican party.” The ideology is exactly the same. This is just a marketing repositioning because the Republican party sullied its name spending like a drunk sailor and playing world policeman to the tune of $10 trillion in new national debt. After “W”, people embarrassed to call themselves Republicans started calling themselves “tea party patriots” but I think we all know 100% of them will be voting Republican.
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Look it up… Republican presidents since Eisenhower have raised federal spending at a faster pace than Democrats. Obama didn’t write the 2009 budget because he wasn’t president in the fall of 2008.
reason….what is the right of center according to you….is a prerequisite believing in virgin births….
There, fixed that for ya.
Chris B
There is more than one tea party group and democrats controlled congress since 2006 election both parties are at fault for our mess.
Charlie
I am kind of partial to the springing from the head of jupiter story myself.
KA
The lunatic fringe elected obama ‘a man connected to CIA’ thinking he was going to make a radical change in US overseas policy.You got fooled accept it.
You’re kidding, right? 2006 was a rubber stamp congress for W.
As for the ‘more than 1 tea party group’, you blighters all blather on about birth certificates, which makes you all certifiable in my book.
A. ‘I know you are but what am I’ is a middle school insult,
B. Both Bushes were directly connected to the CIA, which invalidates & makes your sketchy ‘point’ ludicrous.
OMZ, you voted for McStain & Pallid? Un-fucking-believable. The republican party is 1 major league absurdity which should be abolished. All you fuckheads have done is warp & destroy this country, that is when you’re not whining about the ‘good old days’ that never existed.
& you’re about as challenging as arm-wrestling a toddler.
Did anyone watch the Glen Beck rally? It should have been called the Restoring Jesus rally. If anyone has 3 hours to waste, please check it out on CSPAN. I knew there would be a lot of Jesus talk, but I was surprised that they did not try to be more inclusive. Almost every speaker either praised Jesus or prayed in the name of Jesus. Even the token Native American speaker said that all the 360 or so tribes in the U.S need to turn to Jesus as their lord and savior. Unbelievable!
Now back to the topic….I concur with Charlie, Chris B and Rob91316. Why do Christians want to hang around the earth so long when they could be hanging out at the Jesus resort in the sky. I hear they serve champagne and cavier all day.
here’s an article from the Great Christopher Hitchens regarding the palin/beck dc rally
http://www.slate.com/id/2265515/
Please get well Christopher Hitchens……you eloquently express my views in a way I just cant do today….thank you
Charlie, Thanks for the link. Hitchens is always insightful. I think he got at the core of the issue. White America is running scared. They are so afraid of the non-white population taking over. I am saying this as a white American. Well I guess I am white. I am a combo of Irish, English, Scottish, Danish, French, Polish and Portugese. Does this make me white?
Also, I just noticed that there is a group who is trying to get Stephen Colbert involved in a rally that will restore truthiness to the country. It is an antedote to the ridculous Beck rally. If I was near D.C I would definitely try to attend. Please check out: http://www.colbertrally.com/. If Colbert goes along with this, It will be a huge insult to the “Restoring Honor” rally.
O M GEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
I have always been so so so annoyed that someone like reason would associate himself with a-theism. I am so happy to find that he is a believer. How do you spell relief? Let joy be unconfined. Praise the Bored and pass the medication.
Obeah
Your just annoyed that atheists like me have made good use of religion.Don’t kid yourself most humans are no better than cattle that need to be herded.
WTF is that supposed to mean?
concur….all this time I thought he led us to believe that he was an atheist ……whats up with that reason…..why so deceitful?
Atheism is not an ideology. I’ve encountered atheist liberals and conservatives, civil rights activists and racists, Keynesians and Monetarists, pro-choice and pro-life, gun controllers and avid hunters, anti-war and pro-war people, etc. Chris Hitchens supported W’s “war on terror” for crying out loud! Bottom line: atheists are often the people most willing to differ with the ideological templates. That’s how we became atheists.
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So no, there’s no litmus test for atheist authenticity.
.
But we should be aware that there are tens, maybe hundreds of millions of people like Reason who go to church, “make good use of religion,” but don’t believe. Deep down, those millions of people don’t feel welcome anywhere. That’s an opportunity for atheism, not a threat.
reason,
I first encountered your particular form of erudition a few years ago and I can still remember my response, which had to do with the irony of your use of the name ‘reason’.
Your recent admition to being, at the very least, a Deist, was very satisfying indeed.
Your lastest comment leaves one opened-mouthed and itchy-scalped; that is to say, HUH?
As for humans and cattle, I am one of the few who see little difference in their value; both ought to be treated with dignity, unless of course one of them is a lying, racist, anti-semitic putz who considers reason to be something of his own design.
Obeah
Do you really think i believe in jupiter or in a divine spark.
You and KA and others can believe that if you just try hard enough, that with enough facts the great mass of people will see the light and toss away supenatural nonsense but your just fooling yourself.We have no choice but to bend religion to our will to use it to tame the worst in humans.Or would you prefer to leave it in the hands of lunatics who believe in things like honor killing,female circumsion,killing nonbelievers,slavery.I bash obama alot but i give him credit he understands you have to use religion even though you know its a crock.
OFF TOPIC
Can anyone tell me WHY does this site slow my computer down so much? It doesn’t happen at others. Even TMT is faster and it’s black, with cool pictures. KA?
I’ve got no idea, Obeah. The answer could range from using a different browser to how old your computer is (& how often you perform maintenance on it), to the terrifying possibility of hijacked bandwidth (that’s a guess, BTW).
I use Firefox, a uniprocessor w/3.5 GB of RAM, that locks up on DVD’s w/scratches on them. But I do okay here.
Possibly a low-budget server or denial-of-service attacks on the server from religious hackers…
Thanks KA and Chris B
I think much of the problem is age, browser and maliciousisisity. Odd that no other blog gives me such speed related heart burn.
reason, I would not usually bring this up because it is far too easy for anyone to make these sorts of mistakes, but you have a done again, so I am going into the village of Pedantry: I know you know the difference twixt ‘your’ and ‘you’re’ and that a lot is spelt with a space.
I would really want someone to point this out to me so I hope your not mad at me and lose you’re temper.