wfn.org | Resolutions spell out church's stand on health care

["NewsDesk" <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

March 3, 2003  News media contact: Tim Tanton7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn. 
10-71B{115}

NOTE: This item is a sidebar to UMNS story #113.

A UMNS Report
By Jane DuBose*

The United Methodist Church believes that all people should have access to
health care services.

The denomination has spoken at length on health care in its Book of
Resolutions, which is revised every four years by the church's General
Conference. This passage is from "Health and Wholeness" (pages 263-268),
adopted in 1984 and readopted in 2000.

"We support the following principles of access to health services:

(1) In a just society, all people are entitled to basic maintenance and
health care services.
We reject as contrary to our understanding of the gospel the notion of
differing standards of health care for various segments of the population.

(2) Health care should be comprehensive, including preventive, therapeutic,
and
rehabilitative services.

(3) Religious and other appropriate forms of counseling should be available
to all patients
and families when they are called upon to make difficult medical choices, so
that responsible decisions, within the context of the Christian faith, may be
made concerning organ transplants, use of extreme measures to prolong life,
abortion, sterilization, genetic counseling, institutionalization and death
with dignity.

(4) We encourage development of community support systems that permit
alternatives to institutional care for such groups as the aging, the
terminally ill and mentally ill, and other persons with special needs."

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*DuBose is a free-lance writer residing in Nashville, Tenn.

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United Methodist News Service
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