retired_heidus17

but it`s not medical advice, is it? no-one told her that blood transfusions would do anything other than potentially save her life. the point is that the belief - which someone will at some point have introduced her to - is that it is `wrong` to have a blood transfusion, as ****ing mental as that seems. </BLOCKQUOTE>
it is 'medical advice' to herself though really - though not quite as literally as you're taking the implication. she's been told by someone trained to know that she needs a transfusion. she's decided to take the 'advice' of her beliefs - her conscious advice if you will - that she can't/won't/doesn't want to do that. </BLOCKQUOTE>

Hmm, is it really 'medical advice' though? I mean her decision isn't about what is medically best for her, its an ethical one.
Anyway, that's beside the point, everyone ahs a right to listen to the medical advice given to them and then ignore it and go with what they want (when this regarding themselves). Do you think people who are medically advised to take, say, anti-depressents shoulsdnt be able to refuse them? People make their own medical decisions based on their own 'medical advice' all the time

retired_brittneyloveshim

[ QUOTE]Originally posted by Scatter:
right, so if i start a cult, register it as a religion, and then convince people that if they don't slit their wrists - and refuse medical aid after doing so - every time there's a full moon on a sunday they'll go to hell, said religious followers should be allowed to do so with no repercussions to me?

awesome. wanna join numpty boy?[/QUOTE]

of course they should be allowed to do so, provided that they are over the age of majority, all the facts are available to them and that their express wish is clear. in fairness they`d only need to slit their wrists and refuse medical aid once, so it wouldn`t really be needed "every time there's a full moon on a sunday". i`m unsure whether there should be any repercussions for you, it`s quite a difficult decision to make. i think you`re perhaps drawing a false parallel in promoting the concept of `hell` as the driving force of decision-making for such people (jehovah`s witnesses) - i don`t really know whether it is or not, and nor do you. the extent to which it is relevant is perhaps the most important issue.

here`s an alternative scenario for you to munch on. if it was possible, and legal, to have a group in society designated for death in the event of, say, a heart transplant being required for someone else and no other possibility was available, would you support the right of someone to say they wouldn`t accept it? logic and science dictate that it is eminently possible to accept it and survive, but a moral decision would be required over whether or not to do so.

retired_brittneyloveshim

but it`s not medical advice, is it? no-one told her that blood transfusions would do anything other than potentially save her life. the point is that the belief - which someone will at some point have introduced her to - is that it is `wrong` to have a blood transfusion, as ****ing mental as that seems. </BLOCKQUOTE>
it is 'medical advice' to herself though really - though not quite as literally as you're taking the implication. she's been told by someone trained to know that she needs a transfusion. she's decided to take the 'advice' of her beliefs - her conscious advice if you will - that she can't/won't/doesn't want to do that. </BLOCKQUOTE>

she`s been told that she needs to have a transfusion in order to survive. she has previously been told that it is wrong to do so, but the medical advice itself has not been contradicted.

plenty of people offer more direct medical advice anyway without any qualifications - homeopathy for example has no mandatory universal qualifications, largely because it`s a heap of ****.

retired_heidus17

it is possible to slit your wrists and survive without medical attention, it's just highly unlikely.

retired_musiclova31

precisely my point. it's like that john cleese sketch with the woman crying "what should i do? what should i do?" in panic during labour, to which cleese replies "nothing! you're not qualified!".

know you're playing devils advocate here - just not really seeing why tbh...

retired_berrysale

If the child decided not to have a transfusion and the parents accepted that wish, then they have every right to refuse a transfusion.

retired_musiclova31

of course they should be allowed to do so, provided that they are over the age of majority, all the facts are available to them and that their express wish is clear. </BLOCKQUOTE>
i stopped reading right about there...

retired_sedimohasel

but it`s not medical advice, is it? no-one told her that blood transfusions would do anything other than potentially save her life. the point is that the belief - which someone will at some point have introduced her to - is that it is `wrong` to have a blood transfusion, as ****ing mental as that seems. </BLOCKQUOTE>
it is 'medical advice' to herself though really - though not quite as literally as you're taking the implication. she's been told by someone trained to know that she needs a transfusion. she's decided to take the 'advice' of her beliefs - her conscious advice if you will - that she can't/won't/doesn't want to do that. </BLOCKQUOTE>

What makes it worse is that it's not her own belief. It's not like she woke up one day and thought "oh transfusions are evil, I never want one" most likely it was someone with no medical training whatsoever who just told her that she didn't want to ever have a transfusion. Now didn't he give her medical advice and should be sued for it according to the law mentionned above?

retired_Monica65

If the child decided not to have a transfusion and the parents accepted that wish, then they have every right to refuse a transfusion. </BLOCKQUOTE>

I think what he means is if a baby needed a transfusion to survive but the parents objected on religious grounds.

retired_berrysale

I don't know what the law is on that situation.

However, it doesn't matter if it's on religious grounds or not - everyone has the right to refuse medical treatment/advice if they are considered to be of sound mind.