Conclusion
While Jehovah's Witnesses refuse blood for religious reasons, more and more non-Witness patients are choosing to avoid blood because of risks such as AIDS, non-A non-B hepatitis, and immunologic reactions. As the American Medical Association points out, the patient is "the final arbiter as to whether he will take chances with the treatment or operation recommended by the doctor or risk living without it. Such is the natural right of the individual, which the law recognizes (American Medical Association, 1973)."
Respecting the religious conscience of Witness patients may challenge the physician's skills. But physicians must meet this challenge, they must underscore valuable liberties that all of us cherish. Rather than consider the Witness patient a problem, more and more physicians accept the situation as a medical challenge. In meeting the challenge they have developed a standard of practice for this group of patients that is accepted at numerous medical centers around the country. Theses physicians are at the same time providing care that is best for the patient's total good. As Gardner et al observed, "Who would benefit if the patient's corporal malady is cured but the spiritual life with God, as he sees it, is compromised, which leads to a life that is meaningless and perhaps worse than death itself.
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