Healthcare analysis in religion diversity

Healthcare analysis in religion diversity

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Introduction

Healthcare department has been faced with lots of effects from the religion worldview. Having set a freedom of belief for persons in the world, there emerges many and different religions that have different beliefs on different aspects of life. This stands under no question in that everyone is free to compose their own religion no matter how unrealistic the beliefs may seem to be. The only requirement for the religions is the ability to convince a group of individuals to be the followers of the cult before it widely spreads to be a religion (Koenig, King, & Carson, 2012). The religions always have differences on their way of worship and the supremacy and existence of a deity. Some of the religions may argue that there is a God who created the world and remains the global controller of the world. Others claim that we are in a world that has no supreme deity and that people are guided by their intuition on how to act.

Health care has also faced lots of confrontations from the religion beliefs. Many religions come up with their own formulated belief some saying that the supreme being is the healer of all illnesses thus no going to the hospital arguing that by going to the hospital, the believer is challenging the role of God. This issue has been difficult to control where governments have no power to control this issue having been the givers of religion freedom. This paper gives an ethical analysis of the different world views between Christianity and Buddhism religion. The paper will discuss the major beliefs related to health care of the individuals the different confrontations arising from interactions with the law and civilization.

Christianity religion

Christianity is basically a religion that arose from the followers of Christ. The followers are called Christians to mean the followers of Christ. They believe in God as the creator of the universe and as the overall being on earth and in the whole universe. They believe in the holy trinity of God the father, the son and the Holy Spirit. God is the giver of life and also the one who is responsible for taking it away through the death of an individual (Ferngren, 2011). This is the reason why many Christians, believe that it is the will of God that a person is born and it is also the will of God that he or she dies. They believe in life after death where there is heaven and earth. People who die having done what is right end up in heaven while those who commit sins are sent to hell. They belief that the evil spirits are the cause of suffering to human beings thus the reason why they offer prayers when a Christian is suffering.

Buddhism religion

In Buddhism religion, is a religion that is aimed at developing an individual’s spiritual development without worshipping any kind of deity. They belief in four truths of suffering, the origin of suffering, cessation of suffering and the path to end the suffering. The believers’ beliefs that suffering comes from old age, sickness and death. Suffering is part of human life trying to satisfy desires and cravings. They belief that people suffer because of their desires, ignorance and hatred (Hall, 2013). The Buddhists belief that the only way that people can be able to avoid suffering is by liberating oneself from any form of attachment.

Buddhism belief in meditation that is composed of both calmness meditation and awareness meditation. They believe that medication should allow the individual to have a better view of life and develop a positive change through sensitive awareness. They believe in the medication that helps them avoid illness thus boosting their health life.

Addressing George’s malady

In trying to understand the causes or the why of illnesses, we have to understand the world view of the religion toward acquisition of illnesses to the person’s body and the means of getting it out of the individual. Different religions have different beliefs and perceptions regarding illnesses. According to the Buddhism, Buddha, their forefather, learned science of medicine when he was still young (Hall, 2013). After enlightenment, he acquired a better understanding of nature and cure of diseases where he would heal people’s bodies and minds. It is through his knowledge that he taught on life guidelines of healthy living physically and mentally. According to him, illnesses were caused by imbalance of the body elements and psychological poisons of anger, greed and ignorance.

Using the Buddhism perspective, George would be suffering from a psychological imbalance of the body. It is only through the impairments of the body that can lead to an illness. The body elements responsible for this are fire, water, earth and wind. According to the Buddhists, the four elements are capable of spreading more than four hundred and four diseases.

According to the Christians, diseases are caused by sins. When people do against the will of God, they acquire diseases inform of punishments. The sins also apply to parents’ sins. Parents’ sins can lead to diseases to their children. Therefore, George’s illness would have been caused by sins against the will of God or hereditary from parents’ sins. Additionally, according to the Christian’s, sins were a manifestation of God’s glory to the people. Some sickness are believed to show God’s presence after healing. Malady would also have been caused for reasons of gospel advancement. When a miracle of healing is performed, people are able to know God.

Value of life

According to the Buddhism, life is valuable. They rate life and social sanctity. Life is made unique from the scale of the choices that we make. Human dignity is based on the idea that everyone choose his or her own path of self-perception. The Buddhist understanding of human dignity is rooted in the idea that we are able to choose the path of self-perfection. We can, in other words, consistently make those difficulty’s choices for creativity, growth and development. People’s lives are accompanied by responsibilities. According to Christians human dignity is also valued through consist obedience of the law and the bible teachings. Actions that lower human dignity are discouraged.

Values and considerations that would lead to euthanasia

Euthanasia is a condition that faces different views for its approval. According to the Christians, euthanasia is wrong. Vulnerable patients need to be taken care off and not to be put to death. According to Christians, God forbids euthanasia. Christians belief that God is the Supreme Being and in the bible there is a commandment that ‘You shall not kill’ (Ferngren, 2011). When interpreted in the case of euthanasia it means that innocent people should not be killed. Only God has the authority to take away life. They also belief that human life is sacred and should be protected and preserved not taken away. It is not at all circumstances man’s responsibility to interfere with God’s plan.

According to the Buddhists, euthanasia is not very common to them. However, from their teachings, involuntary euthanasia is wrong as it means that the personal state of mind is not clear and the decision is involuntary. Additionally, it indicates that the physical suffering has led to distortion of the mind (Hall, 2013). They may also urge that helping someone who is very sick to carry out his or her duties is putting the mental state at risk which should also be avoided. Buddhists also belief in avoiding harm at all circumstances. Euthanasia is harming the person through use of drugs; it should be avoided. Euthanasia is an intentional ending of life which is indicated in the monastic laws as wrong.

Morally justifiable options from George’s illness

According to Christians, George is supposed to retrieve his ways to God. Illnesses can be led by sinning against God thus the need to repent and turn to God. Additionally, George needs to pray in faith to God the giver of all things including healing. It would be a test of faith or a form of God’s manifestation to him. There is need for doing the will of God at all times to ensure that God’s presence is always with him that will bring him healing.

According to the Buddists, George is suffering from a distortion of the psychological factors like greed (Miller & Thoresen, 2013). One thing that he can do is to avoid the psychological poison of greed, ignorance and anger. He should also appreciate that the world is not permanent thus live an easy and free life with no sicknesses.

Personal view

Religion is all about worldview which has no room for technology developing world. Today, there are so many illnesses arising some of them are deadly with a very short time. My view is that George should seek medical attention from a healthcare Centre where he will be diagnosed and treated accordingly. Religion is good but should not put anyone at risk due to some hindrances that can be avoided. George can be treated in a hospital and still be a believer of either religions.

References

Astrow, A. B., Puchalski, C. M., & Sulmasy, D. P. (2011). Religion, spirituality, and health care: social, ethical, and practical considerations. The American journal of medicine, 110(4), 283-287.

Ferngren, G. B. (2011). Medicine & health care in early Christianity (pp. pp-41). Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Hall, S. S. (2013). Is Buddhism good for your health? New York Times Magazine, 14, 47-49.

Koenig, H. G., King, D., & Carson, V. B. (2012). Handbook of religion and health. Oup Usa.

Miller, W. R., & Thoresen, C. E. (2013). Spirituality, religion, and health: An emerging research field. American psychologist, 58(1), 24.