Reflections on Cultural Preferences and Internal Medicine: The Case of Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Changing Thresholds for Blood Transfusions

Jehovah’s witnesses oppose receiving blood transfusions based on religious grounds. This refusal raises complex medical, legal and ethical issues for the treating medical staff. In the past physicians attempted to force patients and children to accept transfusions when deemed medically necessary thr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of religion and health
Authors: Sagy, Iftach (Author) ; Jotkowitz, Alan (Author)
Contributors: Barski, Leonid (Other)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Springer Science + Business Media B. V. [2017]
In: Journal of religion and health
Further subjects:B Hemoglobin threshold
B Jehovah’s witness
B Blood aversion
B Blood transfusion
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Volltext (doi)
Description
Summary:Jehovah’s witnesses oppose receiving blood transfusions based on religious grounds. This refusal raises complex medical, legal and ethical issues for the treating medical staff. In the past physicians attempted to force patients and children to accept transfusions when deemed medically necessary through the use of court orders. However, in recent years the threshold for blood transfusion has been gradually raised by medical experts as expressed in consensus guidelines, which means that Jehovah’s witnesses’ aversion to transfusion would have been partially justified medically. This article will further discuss these current trends.
ISSN:1573-6571
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of religion and health
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s10943-016-0353-1