Another Jehovah's Witness has died because of her religious beliefs, but this time, she also took the life of her unborn baby. The effect on staff at the Sydney hospital was horrific, as both were considered to be avoidable deaths.
Had she agreed to the transfusion, she would have gone into remission and the unborn baby had a very good chance of survival.
The 28 year old was diagnosed with leukemia seven months into her pregnancy and doctors told her that she could give birth via a caesarean section and undergo chemotherapy, but both would require blood transfusions. She refused both options.
The baby died in utero and the woman died 13 days after she was diagnosed when her organs shut down and she suffered a stroke.
Sascha Callaghan, an expert in ethics and law at the University of Sydney, said the law as it stands today allows the mother to make decisions that affect the fetus, even if it were likely to survive outside her body.
"This woman had a long-held commitment to the Jehovah's Witness faith and that's how she chose to die. We are all entitled to die with dignity and when your fetus is in utero, it is inextricably tied to your life."
What's the difference between not having a transfusion, to save their lives, more precisely the life of the unborn baby, and she is condemned for that, while the DOUBLE standard of the mother's right to abort her baby up to birth is OK??
ReplyDeleteI wish they would be consistent...it is ok to abort a perfectly non born person still developing, because that is the mother's body and her 'RIGHT' supposedly, but this mum (while i don't agree with JW's non transfusion etc) is lambasted for her beliefs!! There is NO guarantee that either would live especially considering the circumstances! The baby could very well have been affected by mum's health crisis? And only 3% of all cancer patients treated with conventional cancer treatments survive anyway... hopefully they're both in heaven now... baby defs is, mum maybe.. JW's teach corruption of the Word of God, but God judges the heart, and is just and will only judge us on what we 'know' if all she 'knew' was what she had learned in the JW's movement then that's how He will judge her, she obviously wanted to please Him, which is more than many Christians of other church faiths.
Aussie Girl