Values in Care

    Shared human values, cited to each tradition's own voice.

    Start with your own faith tradition. Values in Care cites each tradition's own authorities and does not blend distinct beliefs into one interfaith position. As an optional avenue, we also reference cooperative interfaith bodies (the Parliament of the World's Religions, Religions for Peace, the United Religions Initiative) as framing for our shared humanity. We do not paraphrase any tradition through them. Every claim about a specific tradition links to that tradition's own authoritative source.

    Values in Care is not an interfaith organization, interfaith care model, or faith-based service. Faith, spirituality, worldview, culture, family, community, and shared-value material are optional context within a broader values-centered healthcare decision framework. Cooperative interfaith bodies may be cited only for pluralism, dialogue, or shared-ethics context; they never define a tradition or a person’s preferences. Tradition-specific healthcare claims rely on appropriately qualified tradition-specific sources, and individual preferences must always be elicited from the person rather than inferred from identity.

    Cooperative Bodies

    Parliament of the World's Religions · PoWR

    Founded 1893 (re-convened 1993)

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    A global interfaith convening organization whose current strategy emphasizes continuous interfaith collaboration, relationship-building, shared learning, and values-based action across religious and spiritual communities.

    Key Documents

    The Parliament's current Global Ethic presents five commitments: non-violence and respect for life; solidarity and a just economic order; tolerance and truthfulness; equal rights and partnership between women and men; and sustainability and care for the Earth. Values in Care uses this only as interfaith shared-ethic context, not as a clinical ruling for any tradition.

    VERIFIED
    PENDING REVIEW
    The Global Ethic

    Religions for Peace · RfP

    Founded 1970

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    Multi-religious coalition advancing common action for peace, sustainable development, and human dignity.

    Key Documents

    Religions for Peace issues multi-religious statements supporting dignity in health, including end-of-life care and pandemic response — as a coalition position, not a tradition-specific ruling.

    EXPERT CONSENSUS
    PENDING REVIEW
    Statements & Declarations

    United Religions Initiative · URI

    Founded 2000

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    Global grassroots interfaith network of 'Cooperation Circles' that promote daily interfaith cooperation, end religiously motivated violence, and create cultures of peace.

    Key Documents

    URI's Charter establishes a decentralized structure built around self-organizing Cooperation Circles for grassroots interfaith collaboration.

    VERIFIED
    PENDING REVIEW
    History and Charter

    Shared-Values Cross-Walk

    Values that appear across many traditions, expressed in each tradition's own terms and cited to its own authority. This is a starting point; full coverage is editorially in progress.

    Human Dignity

    The inherent worth of every person, especially in illness and dying.

    Catholic teaching holds that human dignity persists through serious illness, dependency, and dying.

    PENDING REVIEW
    Samaritanus Bonus (CDF, 2020)

    Karāmah (intrinsic human nobility) — Qur'an 17:70 — extends to the seriously ill and dying.

    Rabbinic health-care sources frame care for people who are ill and access to needed health care as communal obligations; individual treatment decisions require case-specific guidance.

    Compassion in Suffering

    Active accompaniment of the sick; presence as a religious and human duty.

    Karuṇā (compassion) — relieving suffering is a foundational practice; mindful presence at dying is sacred work.

    The ELCA's end-of-life social message emphasizes ministry and accompaniment while navigating treatment decisions near the end of life.

    PENDING REVIEW
    ELCA: End of Life Decisions

    Non-Harm (Non-Maleficence)

    Avoid causing avoidable suffering while weighing the harms and benefits of available options.

    Ahiṃsā is a central Hindu principle of non-harm; its application to a medical tradeoff is contextual and should not be inferred from identity alone.

    AMJA's contemporary medical rulings explicitly weigh benefits and harms in end-of-life treatment decisions; application remains case-specific.

    Care Beyond One's Immediate Circle

    Traditions may frame care for people who are ill as a responsibility that reaches beyond immediate family or familiar groups.

    Bikkur cholim (visiting the sick) is a significant Jewish duty of care, and traditional guidance extends it across ethnic and religious groups.

    Sarbat da bhala — wishing welfare for all; sewa (selfless service) to anyone in need.

    PENDING REVIEW
    SGPC: Sikh Philosophy