Prof. Edward Keyserlingk: "I think the effort has to
be made to remove the perception that Jehovah's
Witnesses are somehow in a category by themselves."
Dr. Aryeh Shander: "Clearly, you can point to many
religions, they all have one issue or another, with
which you may or may not agree, but that's not the
issue."
Dr. Peter Carmel: "If this is a religious precept,
this is not illogical stubbornness. This is a
religious belief. And just as I respect the religious
beliefs of many other religions, I think I have to
respect that."
THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE TREATMENT
David C. Day, Q.C.: "All patients, as a general rule,
have the right to receive treatment or to refuse to
receive that treatment, after they've had full, open,
and candid discussion with the treating physician.
Prof. Oliver Guillod: "I believe that the basic
element of patient's rights is the right of self-
determination. That is, the right of any patient to
decide what shall be done to his or her own body."
Narrator: Patients' rights not withstanding, some
have claimed that declining, what they say, is 'life
-saving medical treatment,' is irrational.
Prof. Timothy W. Harding: "It's wrong to equate a
refusal of treatment with suicide, which is a
conscious choice to end one's life."
Prof. Edward Keyserlingk: "There is always a
legitimate question about a patient's competence. But
just the mere refusal of blood, in itself, is not any
kind of such indication."
Dr. Stephen M. Cohn: "I don't believe that refusal of
treatment is irresponsible or irrational. I think
that just because one person chooses to not to take
this pill, or that fluid, this kind of solution, is
their own personal choice."
Dr. Nicholas Namais: "We have patients who say that
they don't want to be on a mechanical ventilator,
they don't want a breathing tube."
Dr. Mark E. Boyd: "It's an everyday even, for a
patient who has a malignancy or cancer, to refuse
some treatment of other. They don't want to have
chemotherapy, they don't want to have radical
surgery, so the idea that patient's refuse treatment,
is something that I work with, not take it . . . I
don't take it as a personal insult."
Narrator: These facts are often obscured by news
stories claiming that someone died because he refused
a blood transfusion.
Dr. Aryeh Shander: "To say that one has died because
of refusal of blood, I think is a very general
misleading statement."