Jehovah Witness blood transfusion?

Question

In my country sextuplets were just born and they will be needing blood. The parents are Jehovah Witnesses who don't agree with blood transfusions.

Should the parents be allowed to refuse the blood transfusion even if a child may die as a result of this?

Answer 1

No.
When their schizoid delusional mental disorder becomes strong enough to create a risk to themselves or others like in the situation you describe it is a mental disease. The parents cannot take decisions anymore. The doctors have to ignore them and if needed alert law enforcement and a judge in order to provide adequate treatment to the children.

Answer 2

Only if you were married to him and he had not signed the medical directive all JWs are supposed to carry with them (forbidding whole blood transfusions), could you give permission (if he was unconscious). Any adult who takes a decision on such matters has to have his wishes respected by the medical profession. It is only in the case of minors that others have to take decisions, and parental refusal can be over-ruled by the Courts. It sounds as if his mother would do everything possible to prevent him getting one, probably by saying she knew his wishes and that he would not want one. If nothing is stated in writing by him, it will be a messy muddle. But if he still wants to refuse blood when he is NOT a practicing JW, you can be sure that the religion has a firm hold on him. He is quite likely to re-join them at a later stage in his life. That would make your position extremely difficult. The best thing you could do would be to find out the biblical reasons as to why God does not require martyrs to the blood transfusion 'cause', and show him from the Bible. After all, the JW stance is purely theological and actually is not based on any medical reasons at all. Email me if you want details.

Answer 3

After talking to Jehovah's Witnesses notice what these officials learned.

A typical reaction was that of a judge of juvenile affairs in Ohio, U.S.A. He was so impressed with the Family Care volume that he ordered seven additional copies for his colleagues. He now modifies his court orders to balance concerns of the physician with the rights of the parents, accomplishing this in two ways. He specifies in his order (1) that the doctors must first exhaust all alternative treatments before using blood; and (2) that the physicians must assure him that the blood they will use has been tested and is free from both AIDS and hepatitis. In three orders issued since he started modifying them, all three of the children were successfully treated without blood transfusions.

Did you notice that the children lived without blood?

Meaning that the Doctors were wrong in the requirement for blood and continuing to live.


Dr. Charles H. Baron, professor of law at the Boston College Law School, presented a paper last year at a meeting of academics at the University of Paris. His subject was "Blood, Sin, and Death: Jehovah's Witnesses and the American Patients' Rights Movement." In the paper itself, the following paragraph stated concerning the work of the Witnesses' Hospital Liaison Committees:

"They have even managed to get American medicine to reconsider some of its beliefs in the light of further evidence. In the process, all of American society has benefited. Not only Jehovah's Witnesses, but patients in general, are today less likely to be given unnecessary blood transfusions because of the work of the Witnesses' Hospital Liaison Committees. Patients in general enjoy greater autonomy over a whole range of health care decisions because of the work done by the Witnesses as part of an overall patients' rights movement. And the causes of freedom in general and religious freedom in particular have been advanced by the Witnesses' dedicated resistance to efforts to force them to take action inconsistent with their religious beliefs


The days when doctors could do no wrong
The days when doctors didn't make mistakes are long gone.

Why do we want to place doctors above God?

Answer 4

By them being their parents then yes if this is there belief. It's really strange but hey what can you say to this. I use to study with JW and there thing is the can't except the blood but they can except the plasm. Which the plasm is circulating from the blood anyways. I had to have a blood transfusions over ten years ago and I thank God everyday that I was not apart of them at the time. Or I would have died.

Answer 5

I just read the story, since you neglected to include any links. Of note, a blood transfusion only increases the volume, but does not affect the transfer of oxygen and nutrients. What it does do is lower their immune responses to disease, something just as important. I wonder if the life long problems of significantly pre-mature babies is related to the blood transfusion they received.

Technology has come a long way, and less than 10% of those refusing blood are JWs. UCLA now performs bloodless transplants of livers, an organ that is saturated with it.

Answer 6

Of course. Doctors and the media push BTs as though they are the never fail perfect solution. My grandmother was often told by doctors IF you do not except blood soon you WILL die. She did not except blood. Several years later she died of another cause. She often told them she was a Witness, they responded "So you won't take blood". She would stop them. She explained that she became a Witness in her 50's or 60's and that she NEVER excepted blood. She always thought the risks were not worth it.
Now, in part, thanks to Witnesses Doctors look into other ways of performing procedures, and suprise suprise, have found that there are alternatives. Aside from that point unless the parents are out and out being abusive or unsafe there rights must be respected and protected otherwise it could be you who get your rights removed for something someone else thinks is wrong.

Answer 7

yes,if they die our faith in Jehovah and knowing he is a god of love will resurrect them in the future.
Jehovah said to abstain from blood. I'm sure the parents and the extended family are praying fervently to Jehovah for strength at this most stressing time in their life and that the children can be healthy.i have had several nieces that were premature and they said the same thing that they would need blood to survive but didn't receive any, they are now all married with children of their own

Answer 8

If you are in a country where denial of blood transfusions for the financial well-being of the parents is legal, then don't worry about it. When you have kids (if you already don't) you'll be choosing what's best for them.

Answer 9

Abraham was willing to do what Jehovah had commanded him to do in regards to his own son, Isaac(Genesis 22:10). Abraham was confident that his loving Father Jehovah knew what was best for him. As any servant of God should do, these parents are simply doing what God is asking of them(Acts 15:29). I personally never want to be the one that questions who should have authority over my decisions-God or man.

Answer 10

In your country .. lol you mean canada? it sounds like come from a far-away country, anyways I'd like to know the answer aswell since they were jehova witnesses.