Most Americans say there are circumstances in which doctors and nurses should allow a patient to die, but a growing minority says medical professionals always should do everything possible to save a patientโs life.
In recent years, legislatures and courts, religious leaders and scientists, citizens and patient advocates have all weighed in on end-of-life issues ranging from whether the terminally ill should have the right to take their own lives to how much treatment and sustenance those in the last stages of life should receive.
Religious leaders, scholars and ethicists from 16 major American religious groups explain how their faith traditionsโ teachings address physician-assisted suicide, euthanasia and other end-of-life questions.
American Jews overwhelmingly say they are proud to be Jewish and have a strong sense of belonging to the Jewish people, but their identity is also changing: 22% of American Jews now say they have no religion.
Three-quarters of U.S. Catholics say the church should permit birth control, about half favor same-sex marriage and just a third (33%) say homosexual behavior is a sin.
Most Americans think that having an abortion is a moral issue, but the public is much less likely to see other issues involving human embryos โ such as stem cell research or in vitro fertilization โ as a matter of morality.