Kim Daniel, Curlin Farr, Wolenberg Kelly, Sulmasy Daniel
Perspect Biol Med. 2014 Summer;57(3):393-414. doi: 10.1353/pbm.2014.0025.
The history commonly told of the relationship between modern medicine and religion is one of steady, even inevitable, separation rooted in the Enlightenment. The divorce between medicine and religion, it is thought, had become nearly total before a recent surge of interest in the spiritual and religious dimensions of health care. This narrative, however, misjudges a persistent sense of spiritual need in illness that medical practice, even today, is unable to entirely ignore. Relying on primary sources, we recount here the little known story of the rise and fall of the Committee on Medicine and Religion and the Department of Medicine and Religion at the American Medical Association between 1961 and 1974. Arising in a context of a widely perceived dehumanization of care and the emergence of new ethical dilemmas at the bedside--concerns with significant parallels today--the initiative garnered striking physician enthusiasm and achieved dramatic successes nationally before coming to a puzzling end in 1972. We argue that its demise was linked to the AMA's contentious internal debate on abortion, and conclude with a note of caution regarding the status of normative concerns in medicine's ongoing efforts to address the spiritual and religious dimensions of its practices.
关于现代医学与宗教关系的常见说法是，源于启蒙运动的两者分离是稳定的，甚至是不可避免的。人们认为，在最近对医疗保健的精神和宗教层面兴趣激增之前，医学与宗教的分离几乎已完全完成。然而，这种说法错误地判断了疾病中持续存在的精神需求感，即使在今天，医疗实践也无法完全忽视这种需求。我们依据一手资料，在此讲述鲜为人知的美国医学协会医学与宗教委员会以及医学与宗教部在1961年至1974年间兴衰的故事。该倡议产生于护理普遍被认为缺乏人性以及床边出现新的伦理困境的背景下——这些担忧与当今情况有显著相似之处——它在全国范围内引发了医生的极大热情，并取得了显著成功，却在1972年以令人费解的方式告终。我们认为它的消亡与美国医学协会关于堕胎的激烈内部辩论有关，并在结尾对医学在持续努力解决其实践中的精神和宗教层面问题时规范性关切的现状提出了一点警示。
