Jehovah’s Witness parents in South Africa would have allowed their baby to die if not for a doctor’s actions and the ruling of a judge, reports South Africa’s Sunday Times.
Jehovah’s Witnesses refuse blood transfusion for themselves and their children due to a policy proscribed by their Governing Body. This is based upon an idiosyncratic Witness understanding of scripture. Specifically, “Old Testament” injunctions regarding the “eating of blood” more commonly understood as dietary law.
However, increasingly the courts are interceding to save the lives of children threatened by extreme and dangerous religious beliefs. Many children have previously died due to medical neglect in such groups as Christian Science, Church of God Restoration, End Time Ministries and General Assembly Church of the First Born.
In some of these churches parents were charged criminally due to medical neglect and some were convicted and sentenced for manslaughter.
The Witness parents in Johannesburg, South Africa seemed relieved that the judge ultimately ordered the blood transfusion that saved their child’s life.
The baby’s mother hugged the treating doctor who initiated the action after the ruling. The father later said, “We thank God for placing our child in the care of such capable medical people and hope for a speedy and uncomplicated medical recovery.”
Their baby is now stable and doing well.
This is one Witness story about a near death medical emergency with a happy ending. But many others have ended in tragedy.
It is a scandal how many children needlessly die due to medical neglect as a direct result of the teachings of certain extreme religious groups.
Parents may believe whatever they wish, but a child’s right to life must supercede such freedom of religious expression.
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