The Religious Consultation
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Religion News Service, April 27, 2005 Poll Shows Catholic
Doctors Don't Always Follow Church Teaching
DATELINE: WASHINGTON Dr. Fred Lillis is an internist in private practice in Leesburg, Va. He is also a Catholic. And he's a Catholic doctor who has broken church teaching by prescribing birth control to his patients. A new national survey of doctors suggests that Lillis isn't alone in trying to navigate the gray area linking his faith, morality and his role as a physician. According to the national survey of 1,536 U.S. physicians, 93 percent of all doctors -- and 87.5 percent of 327 self-described Catholic physicians -- said they would "prescribe birth control to any adult patients that request them and for whom they are medically appropriate." The survey reflects, in sharp detail, the extent to which some U.S. Catholics have bypassed church teaching on birth control and other issues in favor of following their own consciences. "I think they come down on the side of realizing the way things are and making a choice," Lillis said. "I think a Catholic who imposed his ethics or his religious beliefs on someone else by withholding certain medicines or birth control pills would be wrong." The survey was conducted April 21-23 by HCD Research of Flemington, N.J., and the Allentown, Pa.-based Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion. It also found that overwhelming numbers of Catholic doctors -- 90 percent -- agreed with their colleagues that condoms should be distributed in the Third World to help stem the spread of HIV and AIDS. In the only area where Catholic doctors hewed more closely to church doctrine, only 27 percent of Catholic doctors approved of embryonic stem cell research, compared with 49 percent of all physicians. The Catholic Church opposes stem cell research involving human embryos. Research on stem cells derived from placentas or umbilical chords scored higher approval levels -- 79 percent of Catholics, and 83 percent overall. Fully 93 percent of the 341 Protestant doctors surveyed, and 97 percent of the 342 Jewish doctors polled, support the use of birth control. Similar numbers were seen on the issue of distributing condoms to prevent HIV and AIDS. "In some ways, that's symbolic or metaphoric of what the church is doing all the time," said Michael Sheedy, a health expert with the Florida Catholic Conference. "How do we live out our lives in a way that sheds light on the world?" Officially, the Catholic Church maintains that the only acceptable method of birth control is natural family planning, which calls for abstinence on days when conception is most likely to occur. Catholic physician Francis Dennehy of Front Royal Family Practice in Virginia said the survey shows that a substantial number of Catholic doctors do follow church teaching. "That still implies that 13 percent won't (prescribe contraception)," said Dennehy, who refuses to prescribe artificial birth control under any circumstances. "I suspect that's higher than a few years ago." Dennehy said he is comfortable advising only natural family planning from a medical and moral standpoint. "There is no doubt that natural family planning is more effective than the majority of methods of contraception that people discuss," Dennehy said. Consulting his 2005 Physician's Desk Reference, Lillis disagreed, pointing out that birth control pills had a 1 percent failure rate and condoms a 14 percent failure rate, compared with the 25 percent listed for periodic abstinence. It is unethical for Catholic physicians to not provide their patients with scientific reality, said Dr. Albert G. Thomas, director of family planning at New York's Mt. Sinai Medical Center and an obstetrician-gynecologist who is Catholic. "There is a moral obligation for all physicians to be informed about all of the different methods of contraception and to refer patients away in cases of personal bias," Thomas said. "They're spreading myth and they're misguiding patients." Regarding the high proportion of Catholic physicians who supported distribution of condoms in developing countries to prevent the spread of HIV, Thomas said: "It's morally wrong not to allow those at risk of HIV infection to use condoms. That simply is looking at it from the perspective of ethical duties." But again, Catholic doctors are not of one mind on that issue. Dr. Robert J. Saxer, executive vice president of the Catholic Medical Association in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., said even in the case of risk of HIV infection, Catholic physicians should promote monogamy and abstinence. "Perhaps if people are having regular sex with condoms it can put off the catching of the disease, but I don't think you can really promote it for prevention," said Saxer, a retired physician. "The only safe sex is monogamous sex." Thomas, however, said ultimately a physician's first obligation is to the life of his patient. "Our duty is to save lives and prevent disease," Thomas said. In not providing all options to a patient, "you're not giving them the kind of information they need to survive." The margin of error for the survey was plus or minus 3 percentage points. << Religion News Service -- 04/27/05
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