Cultural and religious aspects of palliative care

For most clinicians and patients, the discussion of palliative care is a difficult topic. It is complicated by both the clinician's and patient's belief systems, which are frequently heavily influenced by cultural and religious upbringing. This article discusses the impact of some of those differences on attitudes toward end of life decisions. Several different religions and cultures have been evaluated for their impact on perceptions of palliative care and the authors will share some examples.