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Faith healing

Faith healing is the use of solely 'spiritual' means in treating disease,
with the refusal of modern medical techniques. The term is usually used by
Christians who believe God heals people through the "laying on of hands".
Faith healing has not scientifically been proven effective, although its
practitioners often cite much anecdotal evidence of cases where it has been
successful. Doctors often ascribe any success to the placebo effect or to
spontaneous remission: some people will heal with or without treatment, and
it is natural to credit the most recent treatment for the cure (this form of
reasoning is called post hoc ergo propter hoc).

The majority of people who practice faith healing do so in cases of
otherwise incurable disease. However, there are groups that believe in faith
healing as the sole intervention in any health problem.

Faith healing can pose serious ethical problems for medical professionals
when parents refuse traditional medical care for their children. Parents
argue that they have a constitutional guarantee of religious freedom that
gives them the right to refuse medical care and rely on faith healing, but
many argue that because faith healing has not been proven effective, it
would be unethical to rely on it. Doctors consider it their strict duty to
do everything that they can in the interests of the patient. If they judge
that modern scientific treatments are required to save the child's life or
health it is their duty to use them, in direct contradiction to the parent's
wishes. In 2000, in Britain, a government ruling allowed a child, against
much protest from the parents, to be treated by doctors.

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