Special Rights for Specific Religious

Special Rights for Specific Religious Groups: An Example Of Good Intentions Gone Bad

I think it is a very bad idea for Mercy Medical Center to have a policy that specifically guarantees specific religious services to a single religious or cultural group. While I understand that this decision was motivated by good intentions and that the hospital was aware that the lack of such a policy was deterring a person from accessing services, that does not mean that the policy is a good idea. The policy grants specific rights to a particular cultural group that the hospital is not offering to other cultural groups, which, however good the intentions, is discriminatory behavior. In fact, this type of religion-specific policy seems like it would open up the hospital to allegations of religious or cultural discrimination because of its failure to write similar policies for other cultural groups. In my opinion, a better solution would have been for the hospital to develop a policy that was not specific to a particular ethnic group, but that was sufficiently broad to address the issues that prevented the Hmong from seeking medical services. For example, the hospital could have written a policy allowing any cultural group similar access to shaman or other faith healing services while in the hospital. The hospital held an interactive group between Hmong shamans and the hospital; there was no reason for that group to be limited to a single religious group, and there are no barriers preventing the hospital from holding these on a periodic basis and open them up to any religious group that wants to access the services. Moreover, even if a patient's religious group had not participated in the trainings, the policy could include provisions for a doctor's review of proposed participation and guarantee participation if the interventions would not interfere with the patient's course of treatment or provide a risk of adverse health consequences for the patient or other people in the hospital.

Given my position that the policy is ill-advised, it should come as no surprise that I agree with the other area hospitals and their unwillingness to enact similar policies. Having a faith-specific policy is simply a dangerous practice because it places the hospital in the position of trying to interpret and enact different religious practices as they relate to health care. That does not mean that the hospitals should fail to enact policies that protect the rights of various ethnic groups to have access to their faith healers while in the hospital, but these policies can be written in an inclusive manner that does not specifically single out any particular religious group. In addition, the lack of a specific policy does not prohibit people from engaging in prayer, which is supported by Matt 21:22, "And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive" (Matt 21:22). Furthermore, the policy seems to put a burden on the hospital to help provide those services, which seems to put an undue burden on the hospital. Writing policies that guaranteed access would be permitted, but did not in any way guarantee facilitation of that access would seem to be a better policy.

One of the least understood religious groups in the United States is the Church of Scientology. There is a strong belief that members of this religious group are adverse to modern medical care, a belief that I shared before researching their organization. However, from the information that I could find, Scientologists are not opposed to modern medicine. On the contrary, the Church of Scientology has an official policy of not being involved in either medical diagnosis or treatment of medical illnesses. They believe that underlying illness inhibits a person's spiritual journey, so that they encourage members to seek treatment for any underlying illnesses. This treatment can include medications as well as other treatments that are considered medically necessary. Moreover, this belief in modern medicine extends to mental illness or cognitive deficits, contrary to rumors that Scientologists do not believe in mental health diagnosis (See generally, Church of Scientology, 2012).