Abstract

This explanatory study describes the decision-making, process by members of hospital ethics committees from diverse socio-religious and professional backgrounds. Responses to ethics committee decisions regarding quality of life or futility of further treatment for incompetent patients were recorded from followers of Buddhism. Hinduism, Islam, Santaria, Christianity, and Judaism. Realistic scenarios presented Martha Rogers's theory of the science of unitary human beings. Rogers's major concepts are applied to ethics committee situations concerning person, health, and the environment. The subjects were 12 practicing health care professional: nurses, physicians, pharmacists, and other disciplines commonly appointed to hospital ethics committees. The selection was distributed fairly evenly among predominant cultures and disciplines. The subjects engaged in this case study individually, openly giving personal responses to decision on responses to decisions on quality of life or futility of further treatment. Those decisions were compared and contrasted with the diversity of cultures represented. The study explored and described the influences of diverse socio-religious cultures within a hospital and individual belief systems, the social control of the physicians, and communication values of people with diverse case management styles. In analyzing Rogers's concepts of man, health, and the environment as they interact within a time continuum, a marked difference in responses was found between cultural groups. Within cultural groups, a pattern of similar responses reflecting the influence of socio-cultural religious influences on ethics committee decisions was substantiated. The social impact of these ethical considerations suggests the need for development of an ethics committee member educational orientation. In depth studies In this area are recommended as well