Topic: Health and Medicine

  • Advance directives respect familial relationships, spiritual values, and individual choices, says the president of the National Association of Evangelicals. More →

    March 16, 2012

  • “The whole system is greased to pay hospitals and others for expensive things people might not even want” at the end of life, says Dr. Lachlan Forrow, director of ethics and palliative care at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston. More →

    October 14, 2011

  • The vocation of healing is a central theme in the acclaimed novel “Cutting for Stone” by Abraham Verghese, who writes that doctors “must believe that ministering to others will heal our woundedness. And it can. But it can also deepen the wound.” More →

    November 24, 2010

  • “Patients require that one-on-one encounter, the Samaritan function of being a physician,” says writer and Stanford Medical School professor Abraham Verghese. “I’m convinced that when the physician examines the patient, this is an incredibly important ritual.” More →

    November 24, 2010

  • This scholar and Harvard professor became the primary caregiver for his wife after she was afflicted with a neurodegenerative disorder. More →

    October 1, 2010

  • “You cannot understand caregiving unless you do it,” says Arthur Kleinman. “Acts of caregiving come as close to what I think religion is as I could name.” More →

    October 1, 2010

  • The vocation of healing is a central theme in the acclaimed novel “Cutting for Stone” by Abraham Verghese, who writes that doctors “must believe that ministering to others will heal our woundedness. And it can. But it can also deepen the wound.” More →

    July 16, 2010

  • “Patients require that one-on-one encounter, the Samaritan function of being a physician,” says writer and Stanford Medical School professor Abraham Verghese. “I’m convinced that when the physician examines the patient, this is an incredibly important ritual.” More →

    July 16, 2010

  • Patients at this hospital in Madurai, India are among the world’s poorest people. It was founded by a pioneering eye surgeon who was a disciple of the spiritual teacher Sri Aurobindo, and its business success and social mission have long made it a model in public health textbooks. More →

    June 4, 2010

  • “I want to just go peacefully. The only medications I want are going to be the ones that would comfort me. That’s all I want,” says Jill Steuer, a nurse with advanced-stage breast cancer who has decided to stop any kind of treatment and receive hospice care. More →

    March 12, 2010

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