A High Court Judge in Dublin has ruled that a hospital can give the lifesaving blood if it’s absolutely necessary.
Today’s Irish Times tells us:
The court heard the child was admitted to the hospital last Sunday suffering from pneumonia and an X-ray had revealed she needed to have fluid drained from her lung. It was possible the draining procedure would lead to severe loss of blood and the child would need a transfusion.
The parents, whose religion prohibits blood transfusions, had objected to any transfusion and the father had said he would go to court to stop it, it was stated.
However, that was when the hospital decided to take proceedings and seek permission for the blood to be administered.
It’s absurd in the extreme that hospitals need to seek permission to administer blood in a life-or-death situation.
It’s one thing if an adult Jehovah’s Witness wants to refuse a blood transfusion for him- or herself, but visiting their own wacky beliefs on another human being, especially when they could well kill that human being, is just not on.
The child is not a Jehovah’s Witness (even if the parents claim she is, and I don’t know whether they make such a claim, but it wouldn’t surprise me). At four, she can hardly have stacked up the cognitive wherewithal to formulate ideas on such matters.
All she needs is for her young life to be saved.
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