Health Care and Christian Ethics

Abstract

How can Christian ethics make a significant contribution to health care ethics in today's Western, pluralistic society? Robin Gill examines the 'moral gaps' in secular accounts of health care ethics and the tensions within specifically theological accounts. He explores the healing stories in the Synoptic Gospels, identifying four core virtues present within them - compassion, care, faith and humility - that might bring greater depth to a purely secular interpretation of health care ethics. Each of these virtues is examined in turn, using a range of topical issues including health care rationing, genetics, HIV/AIDS, withholding/withdrawing nutrition from PVS patients, and the empirical evidence which suggests a connection between religion and health. Professor Gill also argues that these four virtues are shared by other major religious and humanistic traditions and that, together with secular principles, they can enrich health care ethics even in a pluralistic society.

Religion and spirituality in contemporary health systems

“…Religion and health have been intertwined as far back as we know, with universal tropes in all global theologies. 1 Exemplified in the Christian concept of the neighbour, the story of the Good Samaritan wonderfully illustrates the connection between the two: the religious/spiritual doctrine of the outcast Samaritan calls him to care for the physical suffering of a fellow human being. Modern hospitals and the discipline of nursing grew out of the Church: deacons provided the first forms of healthcare for the poor and those in need, and, for example, Florence Nightingale trained with Pastor Theodor Fliedner at Kaiserswerth-am-Rhein in Germany in the mid-nineteenth century.…”