Re: Jehowah witness medical care
From: Richard Chudacoff, MD (richardc@bcm.tmc.edu)
Mon Sep 30 11:30:41 1996
Uh oh, we going to get into this debate again?? :-)
>In message <324F78FF.6BC4@imaginet.fr> writes:
>> Since few months, the anesthesistes of the private clinic
>> where I work refuse the Jehowah witness. They try to make them sign
>> an acceptation of a blood transfusion if they have less than
>> 4 grammes of hemoglobine.
>> What do you think of that, what is your self experience
>> of this problem?
>
>I think it's completely unethical, an abrogation of their duty and
commitment to
>provide care. A patient has an absolute right to refuse any test or
treatment we
>offer, so long as they understand the potential consequences. This means that
>someitmes we have to do the second-best or third-best or fourth-best thing. It
>doesn't give us the moral right to abandon the patient, especially when it
is an
>urganized refusal by a group of doctors, making it difficult for the
patient to
>find an alternate source of needed care. To the best of my knowledge, there
has
>never been a successful malpractice suit by a JW against a physician who was
>honoring a blood refusal declaration. This seems to be yet another case of
>physicians putting their own self-interests above those of their patients, a
>trend which I fear is growing and which I think is among the most morally
>repugnant things I've seen in medicine.
>
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>Bob Woolley
>St. Paul, Minnesota
>
>"We're violently opposed to all the Amish. We figure this is safer than
>being against, say, the Teamsters."
>
>Click and Clack, "Car Talk," Sept. 28, 1996
>
--
Richard Chudacoff, MD
Asst. Clinical Professor, OB/GYN
Baylor College of Medicine
Baylor MedCare
1601 Main, STE 505
Richmond, TX
tel 713-344-0277
fax 713-344-0288
Every man is entitled to be valued by his best moment.
-Emerson
