Not “Life or Death”

Many times doctors have told Jehovah’s witnesses faced with major surgery that they must have a blood transfusion or they would die. However, over and over again that has not proved to be the case. Many have been allowed to take alternate treatment and have done very well. And in doing so they were freed from the dangers that arise from blood transfusions.

For example, the parents of a one-day-old baby in Kentucky were told that the baby had to have a blood transfusion. Doctors in a hospital in Fort Thomas said it would otherwise die from Rh incompatibility. When physicians sought a court order to give a blood transfusion, the father, William Bergeron, contacted another doctor. He took his baby out of that hospital and transferred it to one in Houston, Texas. There doctors successfully treated the child with fluorescent phototherapy and dismissed it in three days.

The experience of Aaron Lee Washburn, sixteen years old, was similar. He had been in a vehicle accident and suffered multiple fractures of the head and other areas. At a medical center in Dallas his parents clearly stated their rejection of blood transfusions. At first this was respected. But three days later the surgeon who was to operate sought a court order to force a blood transfusion. He told the judge that surgery could not be done without it. But then other surgeons were given the case. They respected the parents’ stand on blood and proceeded to operate. The entire operative period lasted seven and a half hours. No blood was used. The operation was a success and was widely acknowledged in press reports.

It is not enough to sign a statement freeing medical personnel from responsibility if anything should go wrong because of the patient’s not having taken blood. Such forms must include a guarantee by the medical personnel involved not to give blood under any circumstances. At the same time, such forms can express the willingness to take alternative treatment approved by the patient.