Religion and Politics

Should Parents’ Belief in Miracles Trump Medical Expertise in End-of-Life Decisions?

At CBS, Michelle Castillo writes about parents who “insist on continuing treatment” for terminally ill children because of their belief in divine intervention. Recently, British doctors “asked for lawmakers to change the current British legal system to allow physicians to have greater influence in cases with terminally ill patients.” “You have to take beliefs into account but you can’t let any parent for any reason hijack what you as a doctor believe is in the child’s best interest,” says Dr. Arthur Caplan, the director of the division of medical ethics for NYU-Langone Medical Center in New York City. 

Read at CBS

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