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  • Title: [The refusal to consent to blood transfusion. Legal and medical aspects using Jehovah's Witnesses as an example].
    Author: Hönig JF, Lilie H, Merten HA, Braun U.
    Journal: Anaesthesist; 1992 Jul; 41(7):396-8. PubMed ID: 1497128.
    Abstract:
    The limited understanding of a patient, such as a Jehovah's Witness, who has consented to an operation but refuses a blood transfusion for personal or religious reasons, places the physician in a moral dilemma. According to Article 2 II of the German Constitution, the fact that the patient has withheld or expressly refused his consent, i.e., in writing, mandates that the legal right of physical integrity be upheld with final legal effect, even in the case of an emergency. If this right to self-determination is abused, the person giving treatment is guilty of bodily harm in the sense of section 223 of the German Penal Code. Intraoperative haemodilution, the cell-save procedure, and colloidal and crystalloid volume replacement represent alternative methods of blood transfusion for Jehovah's Witnesses.
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