Bülow Hans-Henrik, Sprung Charles L, Reinhart Konrad, Prayag Shirish, Du Bin, Armaganidis Apostolos, Abroug Fekri, Levy Mitchell M
Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care, Holbak Hospital, Smedelundsgade 60, 4300 Holbak, Denmark.
Intensive Care Med. 2008 Mar;34(3):423-30. doi: 10.1007/s00134-007-0973-8. Epub 2007 Dec 19.
Recent research has shown that the religious affiliation of both physicians and patients markedly influences end-of-life decisions in the intensive care unit in the Western world. The world's major religions' standings on withholding and withdrawing of therapy, on hastening of the death process when providing pain relief (double effect) and on euthanasia are described. This review also discusses whether nutrition should be provided to patients in a permanent vegetative state, and the issues of brain death and organ donation.
The review is based on literature research and a description of the legislature in countries where religious rulings do influence secular law.
Not all religions have distinct rulings on all the above-mentioned issues, but it is pointed out that all religions will probably have to develop rulings on these questions. The importance of patient autonomy in the Western (Christian) world is not necessarily an issue among other ethnic and religious groups, and guidelines are presented with methods to uncover and deal with different ethnic and religious views.
Many religious groupings are now spread world-wide (most notably Muslims), and with increasing globalization it is important that health-care systems take into account the religious beliefs of a wide variety of ethnic and religious groups when contemplating end-of-life decisions.
近期研究表明，在西方世界，医生和患者的宗教信仰对重症监护病房的临终决策有显著影响。文中描述了世界主要宗教在治疗的 withhold 和 withdraw、缓解疼痛时加速死亡进程（双重效应）以及安乐死等方面的立场。本综述还讨论了是否应为处于永久性植物状态的患者提供营养，以及脑死亡和器官捐赠的问题。
本综述基于文献研究以及对宗教裁决影响世俗法律的国家的立法情况的描述。
并非所有宗教对上述所有问题都有明确裁决，但指出所有宗教可能都需要针对这些问题制定裁决。在西方（基督教）世界中患者自主权的重要性在其他种族和宗教群体中不一定是个问题，并给出了揭示和处理不同种族和宗教观点的方法指南。
现在许多宗教团体遍布全球（最显著的是穆斯林），随着全球化的加剧，医疗保健系统在考虑临终决策时考虑各种种族和宗教群体的宗教信仰非常重要。
