Soundings
Soundings
Do you believe in God?
BMJ 1999; 319 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.319.7214.929a (Published 02 October 1999) Cite this as: BMJ 1999;319:929
- Kevin Barraclough, general practitioner
- Painswick, Gloucestershire
As he left the consulting room he turned.
“Do you believe in God?” he asked.
He was a man in his 40s with two young children and prostate cancer.
I don't think that I answered.
He didn't, he said.
The terminal care went well until the end. But he was young, and his bodily systems did not fade gracefully as with older patients. He was restless and inadequately sedated at the end, probably through my inexperience.
He …
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