Thursday, November 22, 2007
I came across this letter sent into The Straits Times.
Community hospitals must not aid conversions
I AM a primary health-care doctor involved in the care of older people in the community.Sometime last year, I referred a woman under my care to a Christian-supported community hospital for rehabilitative care. Not long after she was discharged, she came to see me and expressed confusion over her faith.
She said that she was visited by young people whom she said were related to the staff in the community hospital, bearing gifts and repeatedly asking her to convert to Christianity.
She said she has been a devotee of Kwan Yin (the Goddess of Mercy) for most of her life and it was hard to give it up. I told her that whatever gave her peace of mind would be the 'right' religion.
Some time later, she said that she had decided to stick to Kwan Yin and had politely asked the young people not to visit her again.
Recently, she was admitted to the same hospital for convalescence from a life-threatening accident. During her stay there, she experienced much physical discomfort and fear.
She was approached by a woman staff member who told her that it was God who saved her from death during the accident. She decided to convert. However, she said she would try to postpone the baptism.
The holistic management of an older person includes a spiritual component. Hence pastoral care in a community hospital is important.
However, those engaged in pastoral care must be trained to empower a patient to draw on his religious affiliation to deal with the physical suffering. It should not be an opportunity to convert the patient to the religion of the sponsoring organisation.
In the past, I allayed the occasional concern expressed by either a patient or the caregivers on the possibility of religious conversion in a community hospital. I am not so sure if I could now give the same assurance.
I appeal to the Ministry of Health to come out with guidelines on pastoral care for all the community hospitals so that the religious affiliation of patients is respected and protected.
There must not be any coercion to convert to another religion, especially when one is in pain and vulnerable.
Dr Tan Chek Wee
I fully agree with the views of the author. All medical practitioners and adjunctive caregivers must be professional in conduct and not utilise their position to influence people who are vulnerable.
These sort of actions can very quickly destroy all goodwill that the others in the community hospital has built up. To provide charity with an ulterior motive, is not to provide charity at all. I understand that this is not a charity but the basic idea is the same. If a community hospital is set up for the good of the community, then it should be so. Should the recipient of the services provided by the community hospital feel that they would like to convert to the particular religion, then that would be great and it makes both the patient and the hospital happy.
Brainwashing and scare tactics using a professional position is deplorable.
