Spiritual Care of Religious Communities and Believers in Slovenian Hospitals

Abstract

The author addresses the issue of access to spiritual care for religious communities and believers in Slovenian hospitals from the perspective of national legislation, hospital practice, and specific legal and human rights issues, such as circumcision of boys in Muslim communities. Religion and belief are analysed in terms of current legislation, and hospital practice is examined through various documents and interviews with medical staff. Analysis of sources such as national legislation, internal hospital documents (a total of 98 documents reviewed in 2021), and interviews with healthcare workers in Slovenian hospitals (a total of 13 respondents interviewed in 2021 and 2022) showed that the needs of different religious communities and believers are largely met during their hospitalisation in state hospitals, that human rights prevail over the right to medically unjustified interventions, and that doctors and management have sufficient understanding of the spiritual side of treatment.

Keywords

• religion
• access to spiritual care
• discrimination
• medical ethics
• medical law
• equal rights