14-year-old boy refuses transfusion - and dies
Freedom of religion
A few hours after a judge ruled that a 14-year-old Jehovah’s Witness sick with leukemia had the right to refuse a blood transfusion that might have helped him, the boy died…
Earlier Wednesday, Skagit County Superior Court Judge John Meyer had denied a motion by the state to force the boy to have a blood transfusion. The judge said the eighth-grader knew “he’s basically giving himself a death sentence.”
“I don’t believe Dennis’ decision is the result of any coercion. He is mature and understands the consequences of his decision,” the judge said during the hearing. “I don’t think Dennis is trying to commit suicide. This isn’t something Dennis just came upon, and he believes with the transfusion he would be unclean and unworthy.”
Gives you a real sense of what life must have been like, say, in the Sixth Century - without the humorous Monty Python bits.
From Keith Burel, who adds, “The wages of superstition is death.”
Posted: Sat - December 1, 2007 at 05:41 AM