A Doctor's Cross

A small, growing tumor is spreading across the United States.

This disease is a number of practices around the country that tailor the care they provide to the religious beliefs of their doctors, shunning birth-control and morning-after pills, IUDs and other contraceptive devices, sterilizations, and abortions, as well as in vitro fertilization.

Proponents say the practices allow doctors to avoid conflicts with patients who want services the practitioners find objectionable, as well as providing care that conforms with many patients' own values.

Critics, however, worry that the practices are segregating medicine along religious lines and may be providing inadequate care by failing to fully inform patients about their options. The critics are especially alarmed about the consequences in poor or rural areas with few alternatives.

The phenomenon is another manifestation of the tensions arising between religion and medicine with the rise of religious expression in the United States and medical advances that create moral dilemmas for some.

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