Abstract

SEGURAS LLANES, Omar; ECHEVARRIA HERNANDEZ, Ana Teresa  and  SUAREZ GARCIA, Mónica. Blood transfusion in Jehovah's Witnesses as a problem in Medical Sciences. Rev cuba anestesiol reanim [online]. 2013, vol.12, n.2, pp. 169-178. ISSN 1726-6718.

Background: Jehovah's Witnesses base their beliefs on a literal interpretation of the Bible and do not accept blood transfusions or its derivatives. But, by means of medical options to transfusion, the prevention of the death of the individual in certain circumstances is not always achieved: this causes a bioethical conflict. Objective: to analyze some bioethical and legal aspects that can help the Cuban anesthesiologist to a better understanding of this conflict and its solution in the perspective of giving a blood transfusion to a Jehovah's Witness patient. Development: the dangers of blood transfusion make us consider alternative measures. Jehovah's Witness patients pose a challenge to the Medical Sciences that has stimulated the advance of knowledge and technology on such alternatives for the benefit of all patients, but tacitly deny blood transfusion may eventually introduce the possibility that a patient dies even when there are options to save him. Practice obliges to establish specific protocols and lines of communication between patient, anesthesiologist, surgeon, hospital management, and legal advice before any surgical procedure. Conclusions: the progress of research in the Medical Sciences is oriented to substitute blood replacement or its derivatives because of the biological implications that these treatments bear rather than the obstacles of a religious fanaticism that tries to snatch scientific arguments to justify their beliefs. In our means, this bioethical conflict is solved within an ethical and legal framework in which a supreme good prevails: human life.

Keywords : blood derivatives; bioethical topics; Jehovah's Witnesses; transfusions.

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