Table 3. Beliefs, as Stated in Responses to a 2007 Ethics Survey Among a Stratified Random Sample of U.S. Primary Care Physicians, About Whether a Physician Ever Has a Professional Obligation to Do What He or She Personally Believes Is Wrong, Stratified by the Respondents’ Religious Characteristics and Objections to Controversial Clinical Practices*.
| Are physicians ever obligated as professionals to do what they personally believe is wrong?† |
Multivariate odds of answering “never” OR (95% CI) |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Characteristics | Sometimes No. (%) |
Middle view No. (%) |
Never No. (%) |
P (χ2) | |
| Religious characteristics | |||||
| Religious affiliation (n) | |||||
| No religion (47) | 17 (32) | 15 (35) | 15 (33) | .001 | 1.0 referent |
| Hindu (84) | 26 (22) | 45 (56) | 13( 22) | 0.9 (0.3–2.8) | |
| Muslim (72) | 16 (33) | 40 (49) | 16 (18) | 1.0 (0.3–3.0) | |
| Catholic or Orthodox (93) | 17 (20) | 25 (26) | 51 (54) | 2.4 (1.02–5.7)‡ | |
| Evangelical Protestant(25) | 2 (7) | 9 (36) | 14 (56) | 2.6 (0.8–3.0) | |
| Non-Evangelical Protestant (69) |
9 (14) | 26 (36) | 34 (49) | 1.5 (0.6–4.0) | |
| Other (34) | 11 (35) | 12 (38) | 11 (26) | 0.6 (0.2–1.9) | |
| Intrinsic religious motivation (n) | |||||
| Low (146) | 46 (31) | 59 (38) | 41 (31) | <.001 | 1.0 referent |
| Medium (111) | 32 (31) | 45 (37) | 34 (32) | 1.1 (0.5–2.1) | |
| High (165) | 20 (8) | 67 (33) | 78 (58) | 2.8 (1.5–5.3)‡ | |
| Attendance at religious services (n) | |||||
| Never (50) | 17 (35) | 17 (33) | 16 (31) | <.001 | 1.0 referent |
| No more than once a month (229) |
62 (26) | 102 (40) | 65 (34) | 1.3 (0.5–3.0) | |
| Twice a month or more (143) |
19 (11) | 52 (31) | 72 (58) | 3.0 (1.2–7.2)‡ | |
| Self-identified as religious or spiritual (n) | |||||
| Neither religious nor spiritual (91) |
26 (31) | 41 (41) | 24 (28) | <.001 | 1.0 referent |
| Spiritual but not religious (93) |
31 (34) | 34 (35) | 28 (31) | 0.9 (0.4–2.0) | |
| Religious (237) | 41 (13) | 96 (34) | 100 (53) | 3.0 (1.6–5.7)‡ | |
|
| |||||
|
Responses to
controversial practices | |||||
| Physician-assisted suicide (n) | |||||
| Do not object (121) | 41 (35) | 46 (36) | 34 (30) | <.001 | 1.0 referent |
| Object (291) | 53 (15) | 119 (35) | 119 (49) | 2.6 (1.4–4.6)‡ | |
| Abortion because of failed contraception (n) | |||||
| Do not object (232) | 72 (31) | 100 (40) | 60 (29) | <.001 | 1.0 referent |
| Object (176) | 25 (12) | 66 (31) | 85 (57) | 3.1 (1.8–5.4)‡ | |
| Abortion because fetus has Down syndrome (n) | |||||
| Do not object (247) | 74 (31) | 109 (40) | 64 (30) | <.001 | 1.0 referent |
| Object (163) | 23 (11) | 56 (30) | 84 (59) | 3.3 (1.9–5.6)‡ | |
| Any experience of clinical controversy (n) | |||||
| Yes (199) | 48 (23) | 74 (33) | 77 (44) | .56 | 1.3 (0.7–2.1) |
| No (217) | 49 (21) | 93 (39) | 75 (40) | 1.0 referent | |
*
Multivariate analyses were adjusted for sex, age, region, immigration history, and specialty.
†
Percentages reflect survey-design-adjusted estimates for the population of U.S. physicians in each category, whereas the “n” counts reflect the raw number of respondents in our sample belonging to each category. Because of rounding error, results may not sum to 100%.
‡
P < .05.