Meticulous planning and execution, including implementation of the seven pillars of care, can assist you in advocating for individual patient needs. When caring for Jehovah’s Witnesses, your goals include providing a stress-free, calm, and healing environment to help alleviate patient and family anxiety about blood and blood product transfusions. They also must have knowledge of many ethical and legal issues. Some also may refuse both natural and recombinant hemoglobin, although positions differ regarding blood-derived products such as albumin, immunoglobulin, and coagulation factors.įor more information and resources on personal decisions individual Jehovah’s Witnesses can make regarding blood products, see the Watchtower Online Library on Blood Fractions and Medical Procedures at wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/202006400.Īs integral members of the interprofessional healthcare team, nurses must possess empathy, compassion, and nonjudgment. Nearly all Jehovah’s Witnesses refuse transfusions of whole blood, red and white corpuscles, platelets, and plasma. In 1945, Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, the legal organization of leaders of the Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, concluded that blood transfusions are contrary to divine law. Individual members of the faith vary in their choices, so nurses must clearly establish each patient’s preference. Jehovah’s Witnesses’ beliefs about transfusions are based on biblical texts and perceived risks. Jehovah’s Witnesses and blood transfusions (See Jehovah’s Witnesses and blood transfusions.) However, when faced with a life-or-death decision that requires a blood or blood product transfusion, many Jehovah’s Witnesses view the experience as a threat to their faith. When health issues arise, members of this religion do seek out the best possible medical care for themselves and their families, but they choose providers who specialize in providing care in line with their beliefs. Consider, for example, the approximately 1.2 million Jehovah’s Witnesses living in the United States (about 8.4 million worldwide) whose belief system requires them to decline many human blood products, even when facing death.Ī common misconception about Jehovah’s Witnesses is that they believe their faith will heal illness and injury. Providing holistic and compassionate care in the face of complex ethical and legal situations requires that healthcare professionals possess emotional intelligence.

Nurses have access to ethical, legal, and cultural tools to help honor Jehovah’s Witnesses patient’s human rights.Blood transfusion for the Jehovah’s Witnesses patient isn’t an option, but it may be misinterpreted as refusing medical treatment.Jehovah’s Witnesses and their scriptural beliefs frequently are challenged within our current healthcare system.Author Guidelines and Manuscript Submission.The Council of Europe, which oversees the court, suspended then expelled Russia in March following its invasion of Ukraine. The ECHR has been one of the few remaining legal recourses for Russians to seek justice for political persecution and human rights violations.Īn association of Russian lawyers said last week it was developing a domestic alternative to the ECHR. 16, when it would no longer be party to the European Convention on Human Rights. The court itself had said it would continue receiving claims from Russia until Sept. The bill, which must now be approved by Russia’s upper house of parliament and signed by President Vladimir Putin, sets March 16 as the cut-off date for recognized rulings. The Strasbourg-based court ordered Moscow to release the 91 Jehovah’s Witnesses currently in Russian jails, pay 3.5 million euros ($3.7 million) in damages and either return seized property or pay 60 million euros ($64 million) in compensation.īut Russia seems unlikely to carry out the judgment, with lawmakers swiftly passing legislation Tuesday to end the ECHR’s jurisdiction. “The court found that the definition of ‘extremism’ was overly broad in Russian law and had been misused for the prosecution of believers or religious ministers on the basis of the content of their beliefs alone,” the ECHR ruled. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) said Tuesday that Russia violated 1,444 worshippers’ right to religious freedom when it declared the Christian organization an “extremist” group in 2017. Europe’s highest human rights court ordered Moscow to overturn its ban on the country’s Jehovah’s Witnesses Tuesday, just hours before Russian lawmakers passed legislation ending its jurisdiction.

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