Judge rejects Alta girl's request to stop transfusions due to religion
CAROL HARRINGTON
Canadian Press
Wednesday, February 20, 2002
CALGARY (CP) - A 16-year-old girl with leukemia will have to continue with life-saving blood transfusions being forced upon her by the Alberta government, a judge ruled Wednesday. "This ruling will mean that she will continue to receive blood transfusions imposed on her against her will by means of restraint and sedation," the girl's lawyer, David Gnam, said outside court.
"It will be devastating to her."
The Jehovah's Witness girl doesn't want to receive another person's blood, even though she was diagnosed last week with leukemia.
The province was given temporary custody of the girl late Monday night by a family court judge after successfully arguing the girl isn't mature enough to reject blood transfusions.
Gnam was in court Wednesday asking that the blood transfusions be stopped until he appeals the ruling, but Court of Queen's Justice John Rooke refused to grant the girl a stay.
"If she doesn't have the treatment she will suffer irreparable harm," Rooke said. "I acknowledge there is a harm to religious beliefs, but that has to be balanced with right to life."
Her lawyer said he will appeal, arguing that the girl is a mature minor.
"She's able to understand and make competent decisions," he said outside court.
Rooke pointed out the girl received two blood transfusions Tuesday at the Alberta Children's Hospital in Calgary.
"That harm has already taken place," he said.
Her lawyer told court the harm to the girl's religious beliefs will be multiplied the more transfusions she has.
"It's an assault," Gnam said. "If you are assaulted once, does that mean further assaults don't have consequences?"
An appeal is set for April 25-26.
The girl's mother and father have opposing opinions over whether their daughter should receive blood transfusions.
Her father, who wants her to have them, was ecstatic with the court's decision.
"I'm very happy that my daughter has a chance to live," he said outside court.
The girl and her parents cannot be named because she is a temporary ward of the province.
The court heard the initial blood transfusions have markedly improved the girl's red blood cell count, although nurses noted she cried after the procedure. Her father said the new blood made a marked difference in her condition.
The belief about transfusions stems from Bible passages in which Israelites are instructed not to eat the blood of animals. Jehovah's Witnesses take that to mean they can't allow the blood of any animals - including humans - directly into their bodies.
Mark Kastner, a spokesman for Alberta Children's Services, said the province stepped in because officials were told the girl would die within days if she didn't get blood transfusions.
"We'll be working with the doctors with whatever her needs are, as long as we have guardianship," Kastner said.
Hospital officials said they were unsuccessful in their worldwide search for other possible treatments for the girl's acute myeloid leukemia.
According to doctors, the girl requires an amply supply of new blood for her chemotherapy treatments.
Gnam works for the Jehovah's Witnesses head office in Georgetown, Ont.
In 1995, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the state has the right to intervene in a parent's decision to stop a blood transfusion for a child based on religious beliefs.
Kastner said there have been three similar Alberta cases in the last two years, one in Edmonton and two in Calgary, in which the province stepped in to get temporary custody of children whose Jehovah's Witness parents wouldn't allow blood transfusions for religious reasons.
"In all of those cases we were awarded temporary custody so that we could allow medical intervention to occur," he said.
There are 110,000 Jehovah's Witnesses in Canada.
© Copyright 2002 The Canadian Press