Blood ordered

Oroborus21

Greetings!

Not sure if anyone saw this news.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBHNID8IBE.html

-Eduardo

Legolas

Yes it was posted earlier...........but thanks anyway!!

Judge Orders Blood Transfusion for Fla. Boy Whose Mother Objected on Religious Grounds

The Associated Press

FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) - A judge has overruled a mother's religious objections and ordered a blood transfusion for a 12-year-old boy who is battling sickle cell anemia.

The boy's mother, Leslie Raymond, is a Jehovah's Witness - a religion that believes the Bible forbids transfusions.

The judge said Friday the mother's beliefs posed a threat to Appollo Raymond, who doctors said could die from complications of the disease without the transfusion.

"This is a very difficult balancing act for the court," Judge James Seals said. "I try to give every deference to the religious preference of the parent, but the life interest of the child supersedes the liberty interest of the parent."

Appollo Raymond was in serious condition at Children's Hospital. It was unknown Saturday if the transfusion had actually occurred.

Sickle cell disease, of which sickle cell anemia is one form, is an inherited blood disorder that affects red blood cells, which sometimes become sickle- or crescent-shaped and cannot easily pass through small blood vessels.

Judy Flowers, a medical social worker, said Leslie Raymond is "a wonderful person and a good mother."

"I'm sorry it had to come to this," Flowers said.

Courts across the country have firmly established a state's right to intervene to save a child. In 1944, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled adults cannot use religious beliefs to deny their children health care.

AP-ES-07-23-05 1505EDT

This story can be found at: http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBHNID8IBE.html

greendawn

That's a very reasonable decision I wonder what the WTS legal department will do will they claim that the child's body was raped, violated, as they did in the past? It's a shame the state didn't take over in all such previous cases. Then there would be no martyr children to make an awake article.

in a new york bethel minute

i hope there is a follow-up story so we can see how the child's body reacts to the transfusion. also, i hope when he's older, he realises the religion he was raised in would rather he died.

bethel minute

cecilia

The court did the right thing. The medical social worker seems to be a truly caring person. It seems she has compassion for the situation the mother is in.

I hope Appollo recovers.

Cecilia