Caring for Those in Crisis: Facing Ethical Dilemmas with Patients and Families
In a day of advanced medical technology, many families will at  some point be forced to face a complicated medical crisis with a loved one.  All too often, these situations entail spiritual and ethical dilemmas for  which most families are not prepared.Kenneth Mottram writes to better  equip pastors and church leaders to minister to patients and their families  in times of crisis and confusion. He provides a Christian model for ethical  decision making; addresses such issues as organ donation, living wills, and  withdrawing life support; offers counsel on helping patients and families  face mortality; and gives practical advice on hospital visitation, prayer,  and serving as advocate for the family to the medical staff."Caring  for those in Crisiswill fill an empty space in the literature at the  intersection of pastoral care and medical ethics. From a  Reformed/Evangelical perspective, the author offers ethical principles  illustrated by case studies for the use of the chaplain or pastor in the  area of medical ethics. This book will be useful in the practical courses  of any seminary and in the bibliographies for CPE programs. It should be  required reading for every pastor, hospital or hospice chaplain, as well as  for medical care providers. Mottram enters the 'health-care maze of  competing values and ethical dilemmas' and offers to the chaplain and  pastor ethical principles in combination with categories from the Christian  tradition that will bring informed counsel and the presence of God to  patients and to their doctors."--Kathryn Greene-McCreight,author ofDarkness Is My Only Companion: A Christian Response to Mental  Illness"Written out of the clinical experience of the author as a  hospital chaplain who has sat with many families in crisis, this is an  ideal introduction to hospital ministry for seminarians and lay  persons."--Larry VandeCreek,author ofSpiritual Care for Persons  with Dementia: Fundamentals for Pastoral Practice"Every person in  crisis could use the wisdom of an experienced chaplain like Mottram. While  many of us will recognize our own difficult decisions and hard times in  these pages, this is a book worth reading before heading into those  valleys. To those who labor amidst the thorny ethical issues that lie in  wait at hospital bedsides and in physician's waiting rooms, this book will  be both comfort and guide."--Lillian Daniel,senior pastor, First  Congregational Church, Glen Ellyn, IL