Should a Jehovah's Witness Patient Who Faces Imminent Exsanguination Be Transfused?

Abstract

The right of every person to reject unwanted medical therapies, whether or not the choice is consistent with good clinical practice or medical judgment, is well established in ethics and law. The right to reject treatment can be exercised directly by the patient or indirectly by the patient's surrogate or proxy decision maker. Generally speaking, first-person directives take precedence over surrogate/proxy decisions; that is, a valid directive by a patient, such as a living will or an organ donor card, cannot ordinarily be overridden by a surrogate/proxy unless the patient has given that person specific authority to do so.