Religiousness as a factor for forming the bioethics ideology of patients

The aim of the study was to explore the moral and ethical and bioethical representations of believers and nonbelievers among patients in order to assess the influence of religiosity on the formation of a bioethical ideology and morally responsible attitude to the use of medical services. Study participants were divided into two groups in accordance with religious belief - believers (53,0%) and non-believers (47,0%). We found that there is a difference in all variables related to moral and ethical state of the patients between believers and non-believers. Moreover, we observe differences in the attitude of patients to all 7 analyzed biomedical technologies: in vitro fertilization, surrogate motherhood, human cloning, organ transplantation, fetal cell therapy, abortion and euthanasia. The attitude to the biomedical technologies of religious patients is bioethically responsible and is built on moral grounds, has a moral value and is filled with moral meaning. Religiousness promotes a deeper understanding by patients of the meaning of bioethical dilemmas and morally responsible attitude to medical interventions in the life and death of a person. The results obtained make it possible to assert that religiosity, acting as a factor in the formation of the bioethical ideology of patients, is an ethical regulator of the practice of using biomedical technologies.

religiosity, bioethical ideology, biomedical technologies, and patients