2010 End of Life Conference

Beliefs and Barriers: Religion and Decision Making at the End of Life

This conference was held at the Emory University Center for Ethics on February 8, 2010. It was jointly sponsored by the Religion and Public Health Collaborative and the Center for Ethics. Over 100 people attended, with about half from Emory College and the Schools of Medicine, Law, Public Health, Nursing, and Theology, and about half from the community, including clergy from local congregations, clinicians from the Veteran's Administration, and local hospitals, hospices and social service agencies. Invited speakers came from Harvard University and the Center for Practical Bioethics in St. Louis, MO, to discuss the complex role of religion in situations at the end of life.

Understanding religion's role in end-of-life decision-making has taken on new urgency. In the midst of the political noise about health care reform, there is unsettling new research showing that highly religious individuals are the least likely to have signed living wills, or to have appointed a health care proxy. At the same time, other research shows that religiously observant elderly persons in their last year of life have a higher quality of life in several social and psychological domains compared with those who are not observant. In this conference we reviewed current research in the light of the major faith traditions and from the perspective of religious communities, to explore the context of such consequential beliefs.