Inspire Magazine, UK - 6 Jun 2008
Former JW calls for reform on blood transfusion ban
As 57-year-old Jehovah’s Witness John Edwards lies dying in hospital after he was knocked down by a suspected drunk driver, because his wife refuses to let him have a potentially life-saving blood transfusion, one former Jehovah’s Witness is calling for a change in the law to ensure such a situation never arises again.
“The UK’s 70,000 adult Jehovah’s Witnesses need protecting from their religion and from themselves on this issue,” says 33 year-old Rachel Underhill, who herself refused a blood transfusion before she renounced her faith four years ago.
“I believe the law should be changed so hospitals automatically have the power to give Jehovah’s Witnesses blood against their wishes. Simply saying this can’t be done, as we all have a right to choose our own medical treatment, fails to take adequate consideration of the reasons why Jehovah’s Witnesses refuse blood.
"Theirs is not a truly free choice, but one made under enormous pressure from church elders and the wider Witness community. Members know they will be shunned by all their Witness friends and family if they accept a transfusion, and Hospital Liaison Committee members – the Jehovah’s Witnesses who liaise with medics when cases such as this one arise – will be at their bedside reminding them and their family of the prospect of eternal damnation should they fail to comply with their particular interpretation of the Bible.
"Because patients will have had these ideas so drummed into them, often since childhood, you have to ask whether or not they – or their next of kin - are actually of sound enough mind to make the decision to refuse a transfusion."
Rachel is also highly critical of the Jehovah’s Witness hierarchy, which continues to preach the evil of blood transfusions, in the face of overwhelming opposition from the wider public and other Christian groups.
“The Jehovah’s Witnesses are completely out of touch with every other Christian denomination on this matter and simply refuse to accept they might be wrong,” she says. “Worse still, they seem to treat as martyrs those who die refusing transfusions. The whole policy itself and the thinking and teaching around it is, quite simply, sick. The Jehovah’s Witnesses have changed their policy on other matters in the past and I beg them to change this one, to prevent further loss of life.”
Rachel spent 30 years as a Jehovah’s Witness and nine years ago refused a blood transfusion for herself and her twins when they were born by emergency caesarean section 10 weeks premature. Since leaving the religion four years ago, she has founded www.exjw-reunited.com, a website offering information and support to former Jehovah’s Witnesses.
“I know through talking to the members of my website that many former Jehovah’s Witness have found themselves in a position where they had to choose whether to have a blood transfusion since leaving the religion,” she says. “They are all grateful they were no longer bound by these ridiculous rules on blood, and astounded to think they could be dead now if they were still in the religion.”
Recently, Rachel herself signed a consent form allowing her own daughter to have a blood transfusion, if necessary, during a five-hour operation.
In recent years, several Jehovah’s Witnesses in the UK alone have died refusing a blood transfusion. Beverley Matthews, 33, died in 2000; Jonathan Everett, 22, died in 2001; Angela Jean Shipperley, 36, died in 2003 and Emma Gough, 22, died in November last year after loosing blood giving birth to her twins.
In a landmark ruling in the High Court of the Republic of Ireland in April this year, Ms Justice Mary Laffoy ruled Combe Women’s Hospital in Dublin had not breached a Jehovah’s Witness woman’s rights under the European Human Rights Convention by giving her a blood transfusion against her will.
Following the birth of Canada’s first sextuplets in January, the British Columbia government took the four surviving babies into protective custody, giving them transfusions against their Jehovah’s Witness parents’ wishes. A court case seeking a judicial review of that decision brought by the parents has been postponed until July.