Suffering, Ethics, and the Body of Christ: Anointing as a Strategic Alternative Practice

This article provides an alternative religious viewpoint on suffering & pain. The article contrasts the aim of biomedical ethics, which is often to stop pain, to a religious view that pain can bring an understanding of the suffering of Christ. The article points to assisted suicide as the best example of the biomedical ethics perspective on pain. The article discusses aspects of pain such as the social marginalization of those who are ill or in pain, alienation with self, & Christian bioethics. The article concludes with several aspects of a religious perspective on pain. (35 refs.) (AK)