Religious views and negligence

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Here goes with another thread to rub people up the wrong way!

I'm interested in peoples views on refusing medical care for somebody on the grounds of religious belief.

A friend of mine who is a Jehovahs Witness has recently stopped talking to me because my son needed two life saving blood transfusions. He believes that it's a terrible thing to do and I should not have allowed it.

Personally, I think that any God would be more concerned with saving an innocent life than not and wouldn't have allowed us the ability to perform such proceedures if they were really that bad.
My argument boiled down to the fact that had I just allowed Ashley to die then that would have been neglect on my part.

As an adult, if Ashley decides to refuse medical intervention then that is up to him (although I would try and persuade him otherwise) but as a child then it is my duty as a parent to make sure that he is healthy

Opinions anyone?

 

I grew up living across the street from a house full of JW's. IMO, they're all nut-jobs. Refusing something as simple as a blood transfusion that can save your life is just loony. In this case, you could label me as “pro-life”. I believe that if science has the means to save/extend/improve one’s life, then, if they are able, they should pursue such things with haste!

Perhaps if they dropped that ridiculous belief, their members would stop dropping like flies, and they wouldn't have to go door-to-door looking for new members. The Mormons have that base covered already.

 

Ah yes, but looking from the other side of the argument (not that I agree with JW's) religion isn't like a pic n mix stand.

I still think that refusing life saving treatment for your kid is the same as child abuse though

 

In fact, I think in Massachusetts it is legally child abuse, Silvery. I will try to find a source for that info.

 

I have always felt if we weren't supposed to use medical technology then God (if one exists) would have made us all stupid (instead of just most of us). There would never have been a Salk, a Hyppocrates, a Pasteur, a Fleming, or Dunn and Wood.

 

You have no idea how much of a pain in the buttinski it is to go door to door -- especially in a foreign language.

On topic, it's people like this that give religion a bad name, but such extremists are in the minority of the religious community. Despite comments and insinuations to the contrary, many religious people are highly intelligent, reasonable, and flexible people. I am one of many who believes that God gave us the abilities to think and reason because he wanted us to use those abilities.

Christ actually talked about utterly stupid rule adherence when he criticized the Pharisees and Sadducees for their distortions of the law and compassionless nit picking. I'm sure he would say "what is more important in the eyes of God -- the life of this child or a rule about 'taking' blood which was actually based around eating blood?" The answer to a thinking, feeling, compassionate being is, of course, the life of the child.

I am all for drastic government intervention in cases where the child's physical health is being endangered. Right to life trumps ideology every time, I don't care what the ideology is.

 

Thank god, that it is not up to the parents to decide that in Denmark. when dealing with a child, the doctors opinion overrules the parents in such cases.

 

You make it sound like that's a bad thing.

Actually, that would be a reason to encourage them to carry on!

Anyway, enough silliness (for now). I agree that the position is ridiculous. And where children are involved, I feel it does amount to abuse. I believe in Canada, there have been cases where the courts have ruled that a child be given a transfusion, despite the parents' wishes (I could be wrong, though).

 

I think this is the case you were thinking about (from wikipedia)

 

Its negligent homicide as far as I'm concerned. Legal action should be taken if the child were to die despite attainable fixes.

 

Actually, I do. Waaaaaay back when I was a good little Mormon boy, I went out “tracking” with some missionaries...and since it was Southern California, everyone spoke Spanish.

 

To continue on this off-topic note the mormons must have some of the best language schools in hte world. I have met two pairs of mormon missionaries here in Sweden and their Swedish was almost flawless which is very impressive. Generally people never learn Swedish flawlessy no matter how long they live here but these kids who were here to preach for a few months or so had learnt Swedish better than any foreigner I have ever heard.

 

I (and most Christians I know, but sadly not all) generally hold this belief concering everything in science. If God had not meant us to use those laws, He eiter wouldn't have put them in there to begin with, or would have made us too stupid to understand them. Of course, such consequences of natural laws as flight, radiation, heating, and blood transfusions can be misused, but in the given example, this is clearly a good purpose. If the parents refuse, the doctor should sue for a court-appointed guardian (I think they can do that) on the grounds of gross neglect.

 

... I'm very disappointed nobody has mentioned the names of the scientists I listed (with their contributions)....

 

I cannot believe that this is legal anywhere! Regarding the Twitchell case, it is obvious that thier method of treatment was inferior to the medical community's method. Doctors have said it was an easily correctible condition, and yet their child died from it. So we have healthy versus dead. There's not even an arguement to make here.

 

I have always believed the freedom of a parent to practice their religion should not include sacrificing their child. The courts in America seem to be of the same mind.

 

STILL off topic, you're right about the schools -- the primary one is the Missionary Training Centre (MTC) in Provo, Utah. I learned more about teaching during my 8 weeks there than I ever learned during my time at University -- your post in another thread about how useless the methods courses at University are made me think of this.

Bear in mind, though, that there are SOME missionaries who never really get the language of the country where they serve. One girl in particular comes to mind -- after about 15 months in Japan she could barely introduce herself and ask where the ladies room was.

Back to topic, I firmly think that prayer is an important part of medical care, and it is to be done WITH all possible medical interventions as well. The Lord helps those who help themselves, as it were. Those who endanger the lives of their children with dogmatic stupidity will be punished by God, but I don't see that as a barrier to giving them severe earthly punishments as well -- lock them up and give the children to familes that will care for them properly.

Back OFF topic, I have 2 things to say to you, Kit:

1: The term is "tracting", as in to pass out religious tracts, even though few people use tracts anymore, and

2: That must have been a LONG time ago that you were either "good" or "Mormon".As for "little", I don't have any data on either your height or weight, so I'll reserve comment.

 

I'm glad that I'm not the only one who thinks this way!

In all honesty though, I did expect there to be some argument in this thread so I was pleasently suprised to find that there wasn't!