Judge orders baby to be given blood transfusion
A two-week-old baby was given the chance to live when a High Court judge ruled in favour of a blood transfusion which was against his Jehovah’s Witness parents’ religious beliefs.
After being approached by an unidentified doctor, legal aid attorneys worked around the clock last Friday arranging a late-night court sitting in the hope that a ruling by the Port Elizabeth High Court would save the boy’s life.
Port Elizabeth Legal Aid Board advocate Lilla Crouse said the order for the transfusion was given at about 7pm on Friday. “I arranged for the judge, the stenographer and registrar to be at court at six.”
The court heard that the baby boy was born 10 weeks prematurely on June 23 by means of an emergency caesarean section.
“The parents’ religious beliefs do not allow blood or blood products to be administered to them or their children,” Crouse said.
“They knew that their refusal meant signing the death warrant for the child.”
She said it was fortunate that the Constitution protected human life as this was what saved the boy.
“What a difficult decision to make and what grace that our Constitution protects life.”
[…]According to South African law only medical superintendents can grant approval on behalf of parents. Private hospitals, however, don’t have superintendents which was when Crouse got involved.
While the Watchtower Society (the organization behind Jehovah’s Witnesses) claims to represent God, its leaders can not make up their minds about what He says.
They have come up with their own version of the Bible (necessary to support the organization’s unbiblical teachings), constantly go back and forth on a wide variety of issues, and keep getting their prophecies about the end of the world wrong. See these quotes — from their own publications — for documentation.
Here is the Watchtower’s history on the issue of blood. Many Jehovah’s Witnesses (or their kids) have died as a result of that nonsense. Would you trust your life — and that of your loved ones — to these quacks?
Theologically, Jehovah’s Witnesses is a cult of Christianity. Sociologically, the movement has cult-like elements as well. (Note the sociological vs. theological definitions of the term ‘cult.’)