Jehovah's Witnesses - Comments on the refusal of hemotherapy

• Autor(a) principal: de Oliveira Soares, A.
• Data de Publicação: 1997
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://revista.spmi.pt/index.php/rpmi/article/view/2193
• topic: Testemunhas de Jeová; recusa de transfusões de sangue; dilemas clínico-legais; Jehovah's Witnesses; refusal of blo­od transfusions; clinical-legal dilemmas

The refusal of blood transfusion by the mem­bers of the recent and expanding faith known as Jehovah's Witnesses places the doctor in face of a dilemma: let the exsanguine patients die wi­thout the only effective treatment, or violate the individual freedom of decision, forcing the he­motherapy. This paper remembers the origin of Jehovah's Witnesses, presents a short overview of their doctrine and analysis the reasons invoked by these people for not accepting blood or its natu­ral fractions. A clinical case of fatal refusal of blood transfusions is briefly reported and com­mented. The solution of the increasing challenge put by these deeply religious patients for whom blood is a forbidden medicine has not a straight solu­tion. The author suggests the urgent need of com­mittees to the study of the problem in its moral, theological medical and legal aspects.