Should a minor be allowed to refuse a blood transfusion?

This issue has come up in other jurisdictions. Should a child be allowed to refuse a blood transfusion if not having it endangers their life? Should the parents be charged for not looking after the best interests of their child?

Court orders Jehovah's Witness who doesn't want transfusions back to B.C.
at 18:57 on May 3, 2005, EST.
TARA BRAUTIGAM

TORONTO (CP) - A British Columbia teenager being treated for cancer will be forced to undergo blood transfusions if her doctors decide she needs them to survive, despite her protests that transfusions violate her faith as a Jehovah's Witness. The 14-year-old girl who fled to Ontario with her parents wept as Superior Court Justice Victor Paisley ordered her back to her home province.

"This is a matter of patient choice," Shane Brady, the girl's lawyer, told reporters outside the courthouse.

"Then to be denied that choice and be told, 'Look, you got to go back to British Columbia to be treated by a doctor that you've lost trust in' - that's difficult for anybody of any age to stomach."

Paisley said he did not find any fault with B.C. Justice Mary Boyd's April 11 decision that ruled the girl could not refuse transfusions if doctors deem them medically necessary because she is a minor.

"The wishes of the parents and the child have been heard," Paisley told the court.

"But the decision of this court . . . is to follow the appropriate medical advice of whom she turned to in the first instance."

Shortly after Paisley rendered his decision, police escorted the girl along with her mother and father out of the courthouse. The teenager's identity is protected by a court order.

Arrangements for her return will be made as soon as Ontario and B.C. doctors have cleared her for travel. She was supposed to resume chemotherapy treatment Tuesday.

Jeremy Berland, assistant deputy minister of children and family development for B.C., said ministry staff would help with the return process.

"We will try to make the next step as easy as possible for her, but clearly we've got to move," Berland told reporters.

"The window is not that wide open. We need to be able to start treatment as soon as the medical experts tell us it's appropriate to do so."

The girl had a cancerous tumour removed from her right leg at B.C. Children's Hospital and underwent three months of chemotherapy without transfusions.

Such therapy can inhibit production of blood cells, and doctors sought authority to give her transfusions if warranted.

The girl and her family had wanted to seek cancer care at a children's medical centre in New York with doctors experienced in providing cancer treatment without blood transfusions. But her doctor in B.C. said she should undergo transfusions if they were necessary for her survival.

Brady said doctors from the New York facility were ready to testify on the girl's behalf, but Paisley ruled their evidence would not be necessary.

"Like every other Canadian, she was seeking a second opinion," Brady said, adding that their motive for going to Ontario was misrepresented.

"(The family) did not come to Ontario to flee jurisdiction."

Brady said while an appeal could still be launched, the girl will co-operate with the court's decision.

Brady, who has been involved in similar disputes on behalf of church members, has said the B.C. government's claims that she needs transfusions urgently are unfounded.

Berland disagreed, saying it was ill-advised for the family to leave the province in the first place.

"It's very unfortunate that families feel they need to flee a jurisdiction," Berland said.

"I don't think that it's helpful in the long-term to try to continually look for a different answer. The answer was fairly clear and the answer was in B.C."

Jehovah's Witnesses believe that blood is a sacred source of life not to be misused or tampered with under any circumstance.