[Buddha-l] Religion and aggressive treatment

[W. Codling]

It's probably significant that for Christians, post-mortem existence is 
permanent.  The stakes are high; eternal heaven or hell.  Christians put 
great emphasis on being right about everything spiritual and moral.  
Certainty is what is encouraged, sought and valorized.  But often, as 
people approach death and know that they are certainly going to die, 
they experience doubt.  Many Christians have little experience with 
doubt and are extremely uncomfortable when it arises.  Certainty that 
you are about to experience the ultimate liminality may generate enough 
fear that clinging to life and requesting life extending medical 
interventions allows one to avoid the terror that doubt can bring to 
those who have assiduously avoided it while young and vital.
Wayne
>  
> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/18/health/research/18faith.html?pa
> rtner=rss&emc=rss
>
> What is the Buddhist position on this, you think?
>
> W.F. Wong