Religion

Freedom of religion. A basic human right, right?

Recently, a 26 year old Jehovah's Witness died while being treated for an intestinal tumor because he refused blood transfusions during the operation. A quote from this article:

Lavoie’s brother, who is a former Jehovah’s Witness, has since launched an Internet petition calling on the federal government to make it illegal for a person to refuse treatment on religious grounds.

Basically, the guy's brother didn't like the fact that Lavoie was allowed to endanger his own life on religious grounds, and wishes to legislate away a person's right to do that. I think this is a terrible idea. Thoughts of such a law dredge up images of utilitarian futures where it's illegal to stop taking your "happy" pills to get a clear head; where forced lobotomizing operations are used to quell disquieting elements of society. Maybe this is a bit extreme, but you get the idea. I absolutely want to be allowed to refuse medical operations for any reason. If there was ever a law that said religion could not be one of those reasons, who knows what reasons could go next?

Consider female circumcision (or circumcision in general, for that matter--but that's a topic for a future post). This horrible, mutilating procedure is performed on women in many African countries purely for cultural and religious reasons. Lavoie's brother's proposed law would be equivalent to passing a law in these countries that a woman can not refuse female circumcision due to disagreements with the religious reasons for performing it. It would be (and is) a terrible violation of basic human rights.

Now, take this case of a Canadian Jehovah's Witness couple who just gave birth to sextuplets. From the article:

Neonatologists say blood transfusions are routine for infants of 25-week gestational age. Transfusions are used to treat anemia and jaundice and may also be needed because premature babies have very low blood volume and hospital staff need to draw blood regularly to monitor the infants' health.

The fact that these poor babies could have their lives placed in jeopardy because of their parents' delusions is totally unacceptable. The infants are not Jehovah's Witnesses--only the parents are. Can you imagine if the children had been left at the hospital anonymously, or found abandoned somewhere? The doctors would not hesitate to do everything medically possible to ensure their health.

Doctor 1: We need blood for these babies, stat!
Doctor 2: Hold it right there, doctor! What if these babies are Jehovah's Witnesses?
Doctor 1: Good call, doctor! We'd better proceed without the transfusions, just in case!

See? It's ridiculous. Unless the patient is old enough to understand the reasons for, and the possible results of such a decision, they should be given the benefit of the doubt and the full benefits that medical science can provide them with their best interests in mind. Parents who neglect their kids are considered to be criminals, and parents who deny their children possibly life-saving medical procedures should be viewed the same.

Another recent example is that of Misty Horner. Some quotes from the article:

Misty Horner died on Jan. 9, apparently of septic shock. The month before, she had delivered a stillborn child in her Lee’s Summit home.

As part of the faith, Horner and his family don’t believe in medical intervention. So when it was time for his wife to give birth to her first child, it was done at home without a doctor, a nurse or a midwife.

“(Caleb) didn’t know what the heck he’s doing — he has no medical training, he’s not a doctor, he doesn’t know what he’s doing. He takes the scissors and cuts her and performs an episiotomy. The baby finally comes out, and the baby’s dead,” Moore said.

After that, she said her friend became ill suffering from septic shock.

“The medical examiner told Caleb, ‘Caleb I understand your beliefs. All it will take is an antibiotic and Misty will be OK,’ and Caleb said no,” Moore said.

A month later, Misty Horner died.

In this case, my problem again is the fact that a kid was involved. If its death was due to negligence on the part of the father, as opposed to being stillborn for other reasons beyond his control, then I absolutely think he should be held accountable. The wife's death, on the other hand, was her own choice. The only way the husband should be held accountable for that is if he forced her against her will to avoid medical intervention.

Some people might be inclined to ask, what about the parents' rights? Wouldn't giving those sextuplets blood transfusions be violating the rights of their parents? The parents would think their kids are going to Hell, or whatever, so we shouldn't force that upon them. Right?

Wrong. If we allow parents to refuse their children blood transfusions based on their own religious beliefs, why stop them from doing anything to their kids based on religious beliefs? For example, the couple who kidnapped their malnourished child from a hospital back in 1998, and fed him nothing but lettuce and watermelon for weeks, because they believed he was a religious prophet who would be contaminated by any other kind of food. They did it based on their religious beliefs. They should be allowed to do whatever they want to their kid if their religion says it's okay, right? We might hurt their feelings if we don't let them follow their religion...

I don't think so. So why do we consider those parents to be criminally negligent, but we need to pussy-foot around Jehovah's Witnesses who don't want their kids to have blood transfusions? It may be slightly less extreme, but it's basically the same thing--putting your kids at unnecessary risk for unfounded and silly reasons.

I absolutely think that the line needs to be drawn at making medical decisions for only yourself. There needs to be an age limit under which the health of a kid should be top priority, ignoring any religious or other unfounded reasons to withhold medical intervention. If that kid later grows up and accepts a faith that doesn't permit medical intervention, then that's fine. Let's just make sure he actually gets to grow up and make that decision for himself.