加载中…
Religious people seem
curiously reluctant to meet their maker
很奇怪，似乎有宗教信仰的临终病人不愿意见他们的造物主
HOW do a person’s religious beliefs influence his attitude to
terminal illness? The answer is surprising. You might expect the
religious to accept death as God’s will and, while not hurrying
towards it, not to seek to prolong their lives using heroic and
often traumatic medical procedures. Atheists, by contrast, have
nothing to look forward to after death, so they might be expected
to cling to life.
一个人的宗教信仰是如何影响他对待终期疾病的？答案令人吃惊。你可能会想有宗教信仰的人认为死亡是上帝的旨意，尽管他们不会急急忙忙奔赴死亡，但是他们也不会采取“英雄般”的往往也是痛苦不堪的医疗过程来延长他们的生命。相反，对于无神论者，你可能会认为既然他们死后没有任何值得期待的东西，所以他们可能会力图抓住生命的任何一线生机。
In fact, it is the other way round—at least according to a study
published in the Journal of the American Medical Association by
Andrea Phelps and her colleagues at the Dana-Farber Cancer
Institute in Boston. Religious people seem to use their faith to
cope with the pain and degradation that “aggressive” medical
treatment entails, even though such treatment rarely makes much
odds.
事实上，结果正好相反——至少根据来自波士顿达那-法柏癌症研究治疗中心（Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in
Boston）的Andrea Phelps 和她的同事的研究结果是如此，她们的研究发表在《美国医学会志》（Journal of the
American Medical
Association）上。有宗教信仰的人似乎用他们的信仰来对付因“攻击性”疗法所带来的痛苦，即使这些疗法鲜有效果。
Dr Phelps and her team followed the last months of 345 cancer
patients. The participants were not asked directly how religious
they were but, rather, about how they used any religious belief
they had to cope with difficult situations by, for example,
“seeking God’s love and care”. The score from this questionnaire
was compared with their requests for such things as the use of
mechanical ventilation to keep them alive and resuscitation to
bring them back from the dead.
Phelps博士以及她的小组跟踪研究了345名癌症患者最后的几个月的情况。研究人员并不直接询问这些患者在宗教上是如何的虔诚，而是询问他们怎样利用宗教信仰来对付困境，比如说“寻求上帝的爱和关心”。研究人员根据这项调查得出一些分值。然后研究人员把这个分值和这些患者为了维持生命而请求使用人工呼吸器以及为了挽救生命而采用抢救措施的情况进行了比较。
The correlation was strong. More than 11% of those with the highest
scores underwent mechanical ventilation; less than 4% of those with
the lowest did so. For resuscitation the figures were 7% and
2%.
比较的结果显示了强的相关性。在那些分值最高的患者中有超过11%的人使用了人工呼吸器；在那些分值最低的患者中不到4%的人使用了人工呼吸器。对于采用抢救措施而言，在那些分值最高的患者中有7%的患者使用，而在分值最低的患者中，只有2%的患者采用。
Explaining the unpleasantness and futility of the procedures does
not seem to make much difference, either. Holly Prigerson, one of
Dr Phelps’s co-authors, was involved in another study at
Dana-Farber which was published earlier this month in the Archives
of Internal Medicine. This showed that when doctors had frank
conversations about the end of life with terminally ill cancer
patients, the patients typically chose not to request very
intensive medical interventions.
向患者解释这些医疗过程所带来的不适以及无效似乎也没有什么大的差别。Phelps博士的同事Holly
Prigerson参与了在达那-法柏癌症研究治疗中心的另外一项研究，这项研究结果发表在《内科医学档案》（Archives of
Internal
Medicine）杂志上。研究表明当医生与临终癌症患者开诚布公地谈及生命的结束后，这些患者大部分都选择不使用很强的医疗干预。
According to Dr Prigerson, though, such end-of-life chats had
little impact on “religious copers”, most of whom still wanted
doctors to make every effort to keep them alive. Saint Augustine of
Hippo, one of Christianity’s most revered figures, famously asked
God to help him achieve “chastity and continence, but not yet”.
When it comes to meeting their maker, many religious people seem to
have a similar attitude.
但是，根据Prigerson博士的观点，这种“生命的结束”的谈话对于“并不虔诚的宗教患者”而言几乎没有任何影响，这些患者中的大多数仍然想让医生尽其所能来延续他们的生命。基督教中最受尊敬的伟人之一的圣奥古斯丁（译者注：也称希坡的圣奥古斯丁）曾经祈求上帝帮助他达到“贞洁与节制，但是结果却没有”。说到与死后见上帝，许多有宗教信仰的人似乎也与圣奥古斯丁持同样的态度。
Religious: 宗教的
Curiously: 好奇的
Reluctant: 不愿意的
Terminal: 临终的；终点的
Prolong: 延长
Traumatic: 创伤的
Atheist: 无神论者
Cling: 紧紧抓住
Degradation: 恶化；堕落
Entail: 导致
Participant: 参与者
Questionnaire: 调查表
Mechanical: 机械的
Ventilation: 通风；换气
Resuscitation: 复活；再生
Correlation: 相关
Unpleasantness: 不舒服
Futility: 无效的
Intervention: 介入；干涉
Revere: 尊敬
Chastity: 贞洁
Continence: 自制；节制
英语文化点滴：
Saint Augustine：
圣奥古斯丁（354－430）是古罗马帝国时期一位著名的哲学家，是欧洲中世纪基督教神学的重要代表人物，对西方基督教产生了深远的影响。他最有影响力的著作是《忏悔录》（Confessions）。
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