Counterpoint: Is it ethically appropriate for physicians to offer to pray with patients in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit)? No

It is ethically inappropriate for physicians to offer to pray with patients in the ICU. Patients in ICU are seriously ill, helpless and vulnerable. Appropriate spiritual or religious support should be provided to them by properly trained chaplains. Religious and spiritual belief is diverse, and an unsolicited invitation to joint prayer from a stranger will predictably provoke negative feelings in a proportion of patients. ICU patients are very likely to be delirious and to suffer adverse psychological sequelae, which means that well-meant but ambiguous behaviour by a physician is easily misinterpreted.