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Reflections on Cultural Preferences and Internal Medicine: The Case of Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Changing Thresholds for Blood Transfusions

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An Erratum to this article was published on 24 January 2017

Abstract

Jehovah’s witnesses oppose receiving blood transfusions based on religious grounds. This refusal raises complex medical, legal and ethical issues for the treating medical staff. In the past physicians attempted to force patients and children to accept transfusions when deemed medically necessary through the use of court orders. However, in recent years the threshold for blood transfusion has been gradually raised by medical experts as expressed in consensus guidelines, which means that Jehovah’s witnesses’ aversion to transfusion would have been partially justified medically. This article will further discuss these current trends.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Internal Medicine, Soroka University Medical Center, Beer-Sheva, Israel

    Iftach Sagy, Alan Jotkowitz & Leonid Barski

  2. Clinical Research Center, Soroka University Medical Center, 84101, Beer-Sheva, Israel

    Iftach Sagy

Authors
  1. Iftach Sagy
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  2. Alan Jotkowitz
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  3. Leonid Barski
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Correspondence to Iftach Sagy.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.

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The original version of this article was revised: The co-author name should be Leonid Barski instead of Leonid Barksi. This has been corrected in this version.

An erratum to this article is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10943-017-0364-6.

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Sagy, I., Jotkowitz, A. & Barski, L. Reflections on Cultural Preferences and Internal Medicine: The Case of Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Changing Thresholds for Blood Transfusions. J Relig Health 56, 732–738 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-016-0353-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-016-0353-1

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