We Have the Right to Choose - Conclusion of LOVING CARE FOR CHILDREN

"Medical knowledge is not sufficiently advanced to enable a physician to predict with reasonable certainty that his patient will live or die. . . . If there is a choice of procedures - if, for example, the doctor recommends a procedure which has an 80 percent chance of success but which the parents disapprove, and the parents have no objection to a procedure which has only a 40 percents chance of success-the doctor must take the medically riskier but parentally unobjectionable course." 

In view of the many lethal hazards in medical use of  blood that have surfaced and because of there are effective ways of management, might not avoiding blood even carry the lower risk? 

Naturally, Christians weigh many factors if their children need surgery.  Every operation, with or without the use of blood, has risks.  What surgeon give guarantees? The parents may know that skilled physicians have had fine successes with bloodless surgery on Witness children.  So even if a physician or a hospital official has another preference, rather than cause a stressful and time-consuming legal battle, is it not reasonable for them to work with the loving parents?  Or parents may transfer their child to another hospital where the staff is experienced in handling such cases and willing to do so.  In fact, non-blood management will more likely to be quality care, for it can help the family "to achieve legitimate medical and non-medical goals," as we noted earlier.

Next time:  The Blood That Really Saves Lives

From the jw.org publications