Receiving blood without sanction

MANY issues of a civil, ethical and religious kind flow from the decision of the High Court to grant the Coombe Hospital the right to enforce a Jehovah’s Witness woman to receive a blood transfusion against her will.

One underlying reason why Jehovah’s Witnesses refuse such treatment is fear of being excommunicated by their organisation, as authoritatively directed by their Watchtower magazine.

Non-Jehovah’s Witnesses can only but imagine the impact such a discipline has upon any individual whose life is bound up in an organisation which they believe is the only vehicle of salvation.