Jehovah's Witnesses defend hospital visits that push for bloodless treatment

Hospital visits by Jehovah's Witness elders, aimed at defending the right ofmembersto refuseblood transfusions, are under scrutiny following the death of a 27-year-old Quebec woman earlier this month.

The family ofloseDupuis, whodied of a hemorrhage on Oct. 12, have complained that aWitness liaison committee who visited her in hospital influenced her decision not to have a blood transfusion.

One former Witnessdescribed the hospital liaison committees as "intimidating."

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But their use is defendedby theCanadian branch of theJehovah's Witnesses, whichsays the committees are available at the patient's request to assist them andadvocate for bloodless medical procedures.

"They are not surrogate decision makers for patients," the group's Canadian head office said in a statement.

"The assistance ofHLCsis generally well received in the medical community and recognized as contributing to advances in bloodless medicine and surgery," the statement reads.

Coroner's probe into death

A Quebec coroner has openedan investigation into the death of Dupuis, aJehovah's Witnesswhodied of a hemorrhage on Oct. 12 atHtel-DieudeLvisHospital near Quebec City after giving birth by caesarean section six days earlier.

The coroner will determine whetherDupuis'srefusal to have a blood transfusion met the legal and medical standards of free and informed consent.

After her death,Dupuis'saunt,ManonBoyer, filed a complaint with police inLvis, Que.,allegingher niece was pressured into refusing consent by a Witnesshospital liaison committee.

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The committees are composed of trusted and respected elders who are dispatched to a hospital when a member is facing a blood transfusion decision, said former Witness Mark O'Donnell, who spent 46 years with the faith group before leaving in 2013.

Blood transfusions are forbidden under Jehovah's Witnessdoctrine, which holds thatthe Old and New Testaments command them to abstain from blood.

The elders provide information to families and attending medical staff on alternative treatments that don't require blood.

They also supportJehovah's Witnessfamilies"if the doctors begin pressuring patients or their legal representative to accept a blood transfusion," O'Donnell told CBC Montreal.

Blood transfusion recipients'shunned'

While officially mandated not to interfere in a patient's decision on blood transfusions, O'Donnell said HLC eldersare nonetheless committed to doing what they can to ensureblood doctrine is respected.

"The underlying Jehovah's Witnessdogma [on blood] is the reason they are there," he said."[The HLC]would do whatever they can to uphold what they perceive to be the will of the patient regarding ablood transfusion."

Accepting a blood transfusion is considered a "disassociation offence,"O'Donnell said,and the presence of these elders is a reminder of that fact.

"Their mere presence is somewhat of an intimidation," he said.

Disassociation means a member would be considered as having broken withthe faith groupand result in their being"shunned" by the community,O'Donnell said.

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"The fear is that Jehovah hates a person disloyal to him,and a way of being disloyal is to accept blood, which is sacred to God," he said.

According to O'Donnell, that leaves adherents facing a blood transfusion decision with a stark choice.

"You will either lose your life in God's eyes, or potentially die," he said.

Jehovah's Witness adherents have that fear instilled in them from an early age, he said.

"It's an inbred fear, and it lasted through my childhood and into my adult years."

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Evidence of informed refusal, Quebec health minister says

SimonPicard, a Jehovah's Witnesses spokesman, told CBC Montreal the organization was confident the coroner'sinquest will find that all medical and legal standards for free and informed consent were met.

"We're letting the inquiry take its course," he said.

Quebec's Health MinisterGatanBarrette saidevidence he's seen suggestsDupuiswas "perfectly informed" and that therefusal to accept blood was her own.

"She was informed, she signed documents many times,"Barrette told CBCMontreal'sDaybreak earlier this week.

"She knew, and she made it clear, that if something was to happen, because of her religion she didn't want any transfusion."

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