JEHOVAH NHS ROW
Jehovah’s Witnesses are well known for their belief that the Bible forbids them to accept blood transfusions, but might a Witness have one if push came to shove?
That’s a question for believers to decide for themselves, but now some NHS Trusts have been accused of allowing the church’s elders into hospitals to put pressure on patients to put their faith ahead of potentially life-saving medical treatment.
The National Secular Society has written to Health Minister Edward Argar calling on hospitals to review their links with the church’s so-called Hospital Liaison Committees.
“State-funded health services shouldn’t help religious leaders to push potentially life-threatening dogma on vulnerable patients,” said National Secular Society chief executive Stephen Evans.
A spokesman for Jehovah’s Witnesses denied that pressure was put on patients.
“Hospital Liaison Committees of Jehovah’s Witnesses only provide assistance in individual cases at the invitation and request of the patient,” he said.
“In the rare event that one of Jehovah’s Witnesses willingly accepts a blood transfusion, which is the patient’s personal decision, congregation elders treat the individual with respect and compassion.”
One former elder who has left the church disputes this, describing its work inside hospitals as “a shocking practice that has slipped under the radar for far too long”.
Lloyd Evans said: “As a former elder myself, I can attest that as soon as an elder becomes aware that blood has been transfused with the Witness patient’s full and knowing consent, they will waste little time in wielding swift and devastating punishment by arranging for the individual to be shunned by everyone they know and love.”
Mr Evans called on NHS Trusts to stop giving elders “the red carpet treatment so they can interfere with medical decisions and apply pressure in incredibly sensitive, life-or-death situations”.
They waste little time in wielding swift & devastating punishments