Patients of Faith Seek Lifesaving Care: Study Shows Religion Often Guides Final Decisions

Having entered hospice care, Ruth Holt, 81, said her faith will not motivate her to seek more aggressive treatment for her terminal colon cancer.

"I think I'm more realistic than that," Holt said. "I'm a firm believer. I'm a true Presbyterian. What is to be will be."

While most patients, religious or not, avoid aggressive end-of-life therapy to prolong their time on Earth, a new study shows that religious patients may seek it out at three times the rate of non-religious patients, a finding that leads some to question why doctors don't address the issue of religion with their patients more often, when it informs so many medical decisions, particularly in end-of-life care.

"We're a very religious country, and patients, when they get sick and when they're suffering, many of them turn to religious faith to make sense of their illness," said Dr. Harold Koenig, director and founder of the Center for the Study of Religion/Spirituality and Health at Duke University, who was not involved with this particular study, but has looked at the issue of doctor-patient religion discussions through his own research.