http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/health/2004041765_transfusion29m.html
A 14-year-old boy who refused blood transfusions in his fight against leukemia — based on religious beliefs — died Wednesday night in Seattle, hours after a Skagit County judge affirmed his right to reject the treatment.Dennis Lindberg, of Mount Vernon, died around 6 p.m. at Children’s Hospital & Regional Medical Center in Seattle, according to KING-5 television. As a Jehovah’s Witness, Lindberg objected to receiving blood. Doctors had said he needed it to survive his cancer treatment.In court Wednesday, Superior Court Judge John Meyer said that Lindberg, though in the eighth grade, was old enough to know that refusing blood transfusions might amount to a “death sentence,” and that he had the right to make that decision.
Here’s where freedom becomes child abuse. An adult making a choice to end his life based on religion is stupidity. But a CHILD dying is abuse of the parent, and the government has the legal and moral obligation to step in and require basic medical care so the kid lives to be an adult. This child died without cause or purpose, and it is DIRECTLY the guardian’s fault.Sorry Auntie, you killed a child. Sorry Your Honor, you helped kill a child. Sorry Dennis, you are a helpless victim of stupid people and stupid mythology.My only hope is that smarter people will be less likely to die in the future because of this boy’s horrible experience.
I must say that psychologically speaking, the 14-year old boy was NOT able to consider the full ramifications of his choice. He most likely had those idiotic religious ideals so ingrained in his head that he couldn’t see past them. Custody disputes between 2 loving parents are one thing for the courts to allow a 14 year old to comment on, but this is life or death. I think this is a poor choice to let this child commit suicide with the courts’ approval.
I think we need to tread lightly here. First off, neglecting a life-saving blood transfusion due to religious beliefs is assinine. I totally believe this; however, we must be careful not to give the medical establishment too much power over legal/life decisions.
What if a 16 year old recieves a cancer diagnosis. She has done her homework and knows there are successful alternative therapies to the established slash and burn methods. Should she be forced to slash and burn without trying the alternatives? What if she was 25? or 43? I’ll be damned of ANYONE WILL EVER FORCE ME TO SLASH AND BURN! It would be an absolute last resort OF MY OWN CHOOSING.
Informed people should be allowed to decide their own fate with no forced intervention from medical dictatorships.
Now, was this 14 year old boy informed? HELL NO!!! He was an innocent cog in the wheel of cultural stupidy, non-informed, and the victim of a wasted life.
Religion destroys everything it touches, and is the antithesis of living an informed lifestyle.
Religious education is child abuse. This is not an argument — it is the truth revealed when one sees through the fog of hocus pocus. More proof that the theocrats and their supporters are fueled by fear and insanity.