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Presentation of the “Declaration on the refusal of Jehovah’s Witnesses to accept blood transfusions” by the Bioethics and Law Observatory

By 2 December 2005November 18th, 2020No Comments
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 02.12.2005

Presentation of the “Declaration on the refusal of Jehovah’s Witnesses to accept blood transfusions” by the Bioethics and Law Observatory

In accordance with their beliefs,Jehovah's Witnesses do not accept blood transfusions. How should the physician react to this? How can we respect the freedom of these patients to take health-related decisions when these decisions may put their lives at risk? In this regard, the Opinion Group of the Bioethics and Law Observatory (OBD) of the Parc Científic de Barcelona (PCB, Barcelona Science Park) has drawn up a document entitled "Declaration on the refusal of Jehovah's Witnesses to accept blood transfusions", which will be presented on Monday 12 December at 19.30 h in the Antoni Caparrós Auditorium of the PCB (c/Baldiri Reixac, 4-6).

This report seeks to provide useful guidelines to the general public, healthcare centres and public administration in order to clarify the debate on whether the health-related decisions taken by Christians known as Jehovah’s Witnesses must be respected even when the final consequence may be loss of life. This study has arisen from multidisciplinary dialogue between specialists in medicine, nursing, philosophy, biology, anthropology, geography and law.

The presentation will be chaired by the rector of the Universitat de Barcelona (UB, University of Barcelona), Màrius Rubiralta, and will involve contributions from the coordinators of the report, Ana Sánchez-Urrutia, lecturer in Constitutional Law at the UB; Victòria Martorell, physician at the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau de Barcelona and specialist in hospital management; and also María Casado, director of the OBD.