We Have the Right to Choose - RELIEVING THE LEGAL CONCERNS

This would also be so if it was your child that had the chronic tonsillitis.  The risks, and the benefits, and therapies  would be outlined for  you, the loving parents who are most directly affected and who will be responsible to cope with the results.  After considering all the aspects, you can make an informed choice on this matter involving your child's health and even his or her life.  Perhaps you consent to the surgery, with its risks.  Other patients might choose the antibiotics, with their risks.  As physicians differ in their advice, so patients or parents differ as to what they feel is best.  Such is an understood feature of making informed (risk/benefit) choices. 

What about use of blood?  No one who objectively examines the facts can deny that blood transfusions involve great risk.  Dr. Charles Huggins, who is the director of transfusion service at the large Massachusetts General Hospital, made this very clear:  "Blood has never been safer.  But it must be considered unavoidably non-safe. It is the most dangerous substance we use in medicine." -The Boston Globe Magazine, February 4, 1990. 

With good reason, medical personnel have been advised:  "It is necessary to reevaluate as well the risk of the benefit/risk relationship for blood transfusion and to seek alternatives ."  (Italics ours.) - Perioperative Red Cell Transfusion, National Institutes of Health conference, June 278-29, 1988. 

Physicians may disagree as to the benefits or risks in using blood.  One may give transfusions and be convinced that they are worth the risk.  Another may feel the risks  are unjustified, for he has had good results with non-blood management.  Ultimately, however, you, the patient or the parent must decide.  Why you?  Because your (or your child's) body, life, ethics, and profoundly important relationship with God are involved.

Next time: We Have the Right to Choose - OUR RIGHT IS RECOGNIZED

From the jw.org publications