Electives - Humanities in Medicine

Religious Traditions and Medicine

Elective Number: (Oasis E18a) 3501

Rotation Supervisor: Dr. James F. Childress

Designated Signer: Dr. Marcia Childress, 5361 Barringer

Evaluation should be given to: Dr. James Childress

Available: Rotation 7 - Class of 2008; 8 - Class of 2009

Time to Report: 9:00 am

Place to Report: Center for Biomedical Ethics and Humanities Office, Barringer 5

Typical Day: 9:00 - 11:00 am

Attendance: Attendance at elective activities is mandatory.

• Anyone who is ill or has a personal or family emergency must contact Student Affairs and the Attending on Service.
• Students are allowed to take off up to 1 day per week to interview between November 1 and February 1.
  • Specific days missed must be approved by the Attending on Service.

Number of students per rotation: Minimum of 4, Maximum of 12

Course Description: This course examines how several major religious traditions--particularly Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and African religions--understand health, illness, suffering, treatment, healing, and death. The course also examines spiritual questions that often arise during illness, questions about evil, suffering, and tragic choices. Using cases and literary texts as illustrations, students learn how different religious communities respond to moral dilemmas in health care such as reproductive decisions, withholding or withdrawing ordinary and extraordinary treatments for terminally ill persons, cross-cultural medicine and ethics, and physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia. By comparing different responses to the cases, participants discover various religious communities' major sources of authority, fundamental theological convictions, basic moral norms and patterns of moral reasoning.

The course meets three times a week in seminars of two to three hours each. Faculty from the University of Virginia's Department of Religious Studies and the School of Medicine lead the sessions and there is much lively discussion. In consultation with the course director, each student completes short writing assignments related to the course work; students write and present a longer paper at the end of the course. Students also attend Medical Center Hour.

Readings may include The Park Ridge Center's brochures on particular faith traditions (1996-1997); Margaret Mohrmann, M.D., Medicine as Ministry (1996); selections from Warren T. Reich, ed., Encyclopedia of Bioethics, 2nd ed. (1995); Anne Fadiman, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down (1997); and short articles from the medical literature.

This description is a general overview. The instructor(s) will establish the schedule and particular requirements at the time of the course.