Canada’s first sextuplets, born more than a week ago, are facing an additional complication to the usual premature baby’s struggle for survival: Their parents’ religion forbids blood transfusions, a typical part of a preemie’s treatment.
The babies’ condition remains a mystery, and the hospital refuses to confirm reports that one infant has died.
The six babies were born Jan. 5 and 6 in Vancouver, British Columbia, to parents who are Jehovah’s Witnesses. Delivered at 25 weeks, more than halfway through the typical 40-week pregnancy, the four boys and two girls averaged 1.6 pounds and can rest in the palm of an average man’s hand. The survival rate for such births is about 80%. […]
The news of Canada’s first sextuplets and the role of the parents’ religion in their children’s chances for survival have riveted a nation that prides itself on tolerance.
The infants face months in intensive care as their nascent organs, muscles and immunities develop enough for them to live on their own. Blood transfusions are a typical part of a preemie’s treatment, experts say, because of their low blood volume and vulnerability to anemia. They also must have their blood drawn repeatedly for tests.
Although Jehovah’s Witnesses can receive almost any medical intervention, including fertility treatments, organ transplants and vaccinations, the religion’s interpretation of the Bible prohibits blood transfusions. […]
Asked about the consequences of accepting a transfusion, Ruge said that those who did not follow the Bible’s teachings would no longer be Jehovah’s Witnesses “by their own accord.”
Canada’s child protection laws ensure that babies get the medical treatment necessary to keep them alive, even if it takes a court order.
A 1995 decision by Canada’s Supreme Court in a similar case of a premature baby born to a Jehovah’s Witnesses couple concluded that the infant’s medical interests trumped the parents’ religious rights.
Neither Vancouver’s Child Welfare Department nor the hospital have applied for a court order, a provincial court official said.
Even if they don’t have a choice, the parents face a conundrum. If they accept blood transfusions to save the babies’ lives, it could cut them off from their religious community at a time when they needed its support.
When Lawrence Hughes, 56, was a Jehovah’s Witness, he faced a similar problem. In 2002, his 16-year-old daughter, Bethany, needed blood transfusions as part of her treatment for leukemia. His wife, daughter and the Jehovah’s Witnesses community in Calgary opposed the transfusions. After much struggle, he signed the consent forms, and was cut off from his family and congregation.
Jehovah’s Witnesses typically live and pray together and discourage association with people outside the congregation.
“I was completely isolated,” Hughes said.
After Bethany had 38 transfusions, her mother took her into hiding, and the girl eventually died. Hughes is suing the Jehovah’s Witnesses, claiming the lawyers who fought the forced treatments did not act in his daughter’s best interests.
“I knew that once I signed the consent form, that was it. I knew I’d lose my family, my friends and my faith,” he said. “I did it to try to save my daughter, but I lost her too.”
Hughes, who works at an architectural firm in Calgary, has joined with other former Jehovah’s Witnesses and dissenters in the church to seek a change in policy regarding blood transfusions. In recent years, the religion has allowed patients to receive what it calls “fractions,” or components of blood, but not whole blood.
The prohibition presents a problem for doctors as well, said Juliet Guichon, a medical bioethicist at the University of Calgary.
“The consequences of refusing blood in certain situations are fatal,” Guichon said in a telephone interview. “There must be something to make people choose that. If it’s coercion or fear, the physician must be aware of that.”
This is a summary extract from the full article as it appeared in the LA Times, Jan 17, 2007
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