Ethics and medicine: Jehovah’s Witnesses and the new blood transfusion rules

Donna Knapp van Bogaert; Gboyega Adebola Ogunbanjo

Ethics and medicine: Jehovah’s Witnesses and the new blood transfusion rules

Donna Knapp van Bogaert University of Stellenbosch
Gboyega Adebola Ogunbanjo University of Limpopo (Medunsa Campus)

Keywords: Jehovah’s Witness, blood, blood products, autonomous, transfusion, confidentiality

Abstract

It is against the doctrine of The Watchtower and Bible Tract Society for their followers, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, to accept blood transfusions. For this reason, this topic remains a critical issue in medical practice and ethics. Few patients can survive a haemoglobin level of less than 5 g per decilitre without transfusion. In the medical field, Jehovah’s Witnesses are widely known for their prohibition against the receipt of blood transfusions. The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, as the church’s legislating body introduced the policy on refusal of blood in 1945, stating that blood transfusion defies divine precepts. This article reviews the ethics of blood transfusion in the Jehovah’s witnesses and the new blood transfusion rules in South Africa.

Author Biographies

Donna Knapp van Bogaert, University of Stellenbosch

PhD, DPhil Fellow Centre for Applied Ethics University of Stellenbosch; Independent Consultant in Ethics

Gboyega Adebola Ogunbanjo, University of Limpopo (Medunsa Campus)

MBBS, FCFP(SA), M Fam Med, FACRRM, FACTM, FAFP(SA), FWACP (Fam Med) Department of Family Medicine & Primary Health Care University of Limpopo (Medunsa Campus) Pretoria

Published

2013-01-31

Issue

Vol 55 No 1: January/February 2013

Section

Ethics CPD Supplement

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