Scientists See Connection Between Faith and Transplant Survival

Teresa Neumann : Aug 17, 2010
Staff - ANSA/NewsCore

"It is about an intimate side of people's personalities, which leads them to approach a serious disease as a chance to reconsider their own existence and values, and reassess its spiritual and transcendent elements."

(Pisa, Italy)—The Italian news agency ANSA has reported that scientists at the Clinical Physiology Institute of the Pisa National Research Council followed the progress of 179 liver transplant recipients and found that 93.5 percent of those who were "religious worshippers" were still alive four years after their operation. Fewer of their non-religious counterparts survived.

In other words, according to the report, "the statistics suggest that the mortality rate for a liver transplant patient who does not believe in God is three times higher than for those who do—20.5 per cent compared to 6.6 per cent." (Photo by: Fernando Audibert)

"It is about an intimate side of people's personalities, which leads them to approach a serious disease as a chance to reconsider their own existence and values, and reassess its spiritual and transcendent elements," said study leader, psychologist Franco Bonaguidi.