MONTREAL — A former Jehovah’s Witness, whose brother died after refusing blood transfusions, has collected 5,000 names on a petition which calls for doctors to be allowed to intervene medically regardless of the patient’s religious beliefs.
[...]
Jonathan Lavoie, 32, says adults should be subject to the same rigorous judicial test that children go through before they can turn down a medical procedure based solely on religious beliefs.
“What I’d like to see is the laws changed so that doctors, when a person refuses a procedure for religious reasons —any religion —can still operate,” says Lavoie, who hasn’t decided when he’ll give his petition to Quebec and federal politicians.
What I object to when these situations involve children is that the religious parents are conducting an experiment in Faith on something (a person) that they do not own. You don't and should not have the right to offer your child in sacrifice to your God. Hence state intervention is acceptable.
But once you've come of age, as it were, then the choice as to whether and under what circumstances you wish to continue with your life is nobody else's business (as long as you meet the "sound of mind" test). What would happen if I refused a medical procedure and justified it as springing from my Atheism?
PS. Does anyone else refer to the Jehovah's Witnesses as The Jolly Ho-Hos? Or is it strictly a West Coast thing?
