Jehovah's Witnesses and blood transfusion November 16,2014

One of my colleague during stage had a patient from Jehovah's Witnesses, The patient was admitted because of a lack of Red blood cells in her blood. And in the hospital, the main care that needs to be provided for someone lacking blood is blood transfusion. The student nurse told me that since the patient was from that religious belief, she was refusing blood transfusion. The patient explained that in her religion blood transfusion is a violation of God's law. She was aware that if her condition is life-threatening and she absolutely needs blood, she will refuse because of her belief. After my colleague told me the story, I felt that this can create a serious ethical dilemma. Meaning that we have patient that can easily get cured but religion is a barrier for us to intervene. I would personally have a hard time dealing with this type of situation especially if we it is our job to promote beneficence. In this situation we would be prevented from doing so because of religion. I would have a moral distress because I wouldn't be able to do anything to save that person. It remind me of a story that happened this year in Europe. There was parents from Jehovah's witnesses that kidnapped their child so he wouldn't get a blood transfusion because of their belief. This is not right, the parents chose for the children based on what they thought was right. They could have killed their child for this. I would have hard time dealing with this type of surrogate because for me they didn't provide good for the child. But still as the DNR, I would have to respect their choice and not do any transfusion without their consent.

Qais Khedri

Nursing ethics