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.
What:
That’s my whole point. The judge conducted an interview with the kid & deemed him to be “mature and competent enough to refuse blood transfusions”.
21 is ridiculous. Cut the freaking umbilical cord & let them grow up, make mistakes & learn. Babying people longer isn’t going to change one thing & only delays maturity.
Bernada,
JW was just one more religion I looked into and yes I use to go door to door. Contrary to JW legend most people were nice but disagreed.
Not all of us ex-JW’s are assholes. Some of us come around when we realize it’s a cult
TXatheist
You’re ex-JW? No kidding! Wow. Congratulations on breaking free!
Mxracer
The judge is not capable of judging the emotional independence of a child by talking to the child. A person’s, especially a 14 year old’s, actions are the gauge of emotional maturity and these must be observed over a long period of time to judge emotional maturity. Regardless of who is doing the evaluation or how I can guarantee you that no stable 14 y.o. has adequate emotional independence from their guardian to make such decisions.
Karen
Damn they’re good aren’t they. If the commercial music world has any collective sense (a lot to ask) these kids are going to be heard far and wide.
I fail to see the issue with allowing a fourteen year old Christian with such strong beliefs grow up to be a voter with strong Christian beliefs. We should infect more of them with horrible, but easily cured diseases.
The sad thing is JW’s are so convinced his determination to remain loyal to the Watchtower society earns him a spot in the new JW world. For those that don’t know when Armageddon passes there will be 144,000 annointed JW’s to rule the earth and all the remaining JW’s will be living on earth in perfect harmony with no disease, no wars, no famine…etc. Non-JW’s just remain dead and unaware(unconscious).
Wouldn’t this be the opposite of assisted suicide?
A Dr. giving a person a lethal dose to ease the pain and end life in terminal death cases is illegal right?
So ought it be illegal to withhold life saving measures? Its legal based on religious belief. Its legal for a minor to refuse treatments?
How stupid can you get. You wouldnt let a minor drive or drink, yet we assume they can make this life or death decision?
They want it illegal to have an abortion? isnt this aborting this kids life?
Sometimes I wonder why I’m in the Military fighting for this country.
Fighting for a bunch of mentally challenged idiots.
WE need to declare WAR on STUPIDITY
Having been raised a Jehovah’s Witness myself, I’ve seen a number of these cases up close, where the family fought tooth and nail to ensure that blood transfusions were not used.
For those that think a 14 y/o JW is old enough to make their own decision on this matter, I offer this.
The indoctrination is so exceedingly potent, that at 14, I would have done EVERYTHING in my power to stop myself getting a transfusion. JWs are taught to physically fight, to rip the medical tubes from one’s body, anything to stop the transfusion.
I’ve seen the depression for years after, on those that had one forced on them, with the JW sickened by what they perceive to be a gross sin that they’ve committed.
Despicable cult.
Phreedumber than usual, “Let’s see you apply that line of reasoning to a 14 year old pregnant girl seeking an abortion…”
There is no life and death decision here unless in some cases the girl risks her own life in giving birth.
But then, the jesus freak Phreedy might just let her die.
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.