Understanding and respecting the spiritual beliefs, ethnic roots, cultural norms and customs of individual families is essential for neonatologists to provide clinically appropriate and humane end-of-life care. This review describes the religious/philosophical principles, cultural-related practices/rituals, and traditions in end-of-life care in major spiritual groups of today's multi-cultural, multi-faith societies. The spiritual groups include Christians, Muslims, Jewish Judaism believers and Asian religious/philosophy followers such as Buddhists, Hindus, Taoists, Confucianism devotees and ancestral worshippers. It is vital to understand that substantial variation in views and practices may exist even within the same religion and culture in different geographic locations. Ethical views and cultural practices are not static elements in life but behave in a fluidic and dynamic manner that could change with time. Interestingly, an evolving pattern has been observed in some Asian and Middle East countries that more parents and/or religious groups are beginning to accept a form of redirection of care most compatible with their spiritual belief and culture. Thus, every family must be assessed and counseled individually for end-of-life decision-making. Also, every effort should be made to comply with parents' requests and to treat infants/parents of different religions and cultures with utmost dignity so that they have no regret for their irreversible decisions.

理解和尊重各个家庭的精神信仰、种族根源、文化规范和习俗对于新生儿科医生提供临床上适当和人道的临终关怀至关重要。这篇评论描述了当今多元文化、多信仰社会的主要精神群体的临终关怀的宗教/哲学原则、文化相关的实践/仪式和传统。精神群体包括基督徒、穆斯林、犹太犹太教信徒和亚洲宗教/哲学追随者，如佛教徒、印度教徒、道教徒、儒教信徒和祖先崇拜者。重要的是要理解，即使在不同地理位置的同一宗教和文化中，观点和做法也可能存在巨大差异。道德观念和文化实践不是生活中的静态元素，而是以流动和动态的方式表现，可能随着时间而变化。有趣的是，在一些亚洲和中东国家观察到一种不断变化的模式，越来越多的父母和/或宗教团体开始接受一种最适合其精神信仰和文化的照顾方式。因此，每个家庭都必须接受单独的评估和咨询，以做出临终决策。此外，应尽一切努力遵守父母的要求，并以最大的尊严对待不同宗教和文化的婴儿/父母，使他们不会为自己的不可逆转的决定而后悔。