Suicide, end of life care for children, and mental health for the elderly – these are just some of the topics to be discussed at a conference held at the Vatican called Religion and Medical Ethics.
Put on by the WISH of the Qatar Foundation and the Pontifical Academy for Life, it combines medical experts and leaders of the three monotheistic religions to help patients and their families.
DR. KAMRAN ABBASI
British Medical Journal
“This conference is perfectly in line with our core values and we have four of those. First is to be transparent and open. The second not in any particular order is to be patient centered. The third is to be evidence based. And fourthly, we aim and work towards always being courageous in everything we do at the BMJ, our vision, like the Qatar Foundation, which is to create a healthier world.”
DR. SULTANA AFDHAL
CEO, WISH, Qatar Foundation
“I think the symposium here is very much focused on first of all, looking at the commonalities that exists. Secondly, expanding the thoughts of what palliative care actually means to different people, and then providing hopefully some type of discourse and guidelines so that people of faith can have some confidence that they are making the right type of choices.”
MSGR. VINCENZO PAGLIA
President, Pontifical Academy for Life
'Today we need to cover the needs of all those who are in the most difficult moments, which is the end of life. We must seek that all believers, in this case the three great monotheistic religions, who all believe God created us, can be a kind of leaven to make the culture of love mature in the world.'
Beliefs regarding the end of life for Islam, Judaism and Christianity will be discussed throughout the two-day conference.
The 250 participants will be seeking greater psychosocial and spiritual support for both patients and their families, uniting perspectives from America, Europe and the Middle East.
Melissa Butz
