Blood Transfusions

Topic

Sort

ScotlandConfirmed

Scottish judge holds the court can consent for a child whose parents refuse — two of three cases are Jehovah's Witness blood refusals

Illustration: an empty chair facing two others at a judicial bench rail, beside apothecary scales weighing a consent form against a medical vial

Lord Braid's opinion of 20 August 2026 covers three petitions that reached Scotland's highest civil court within about two weeks. In two, brought by Greater Glasgow Health Board, Jehovah's Witness parents had refused blood; the court authorised a transfusion only if the treating clinician judged it necessary to avoid serious harm including death. The third, from Borders Health Board, records no religious objection: parents who prefer natural remedies refused a tetanus jab after the family dog bit their daughter. The judge recorded that all three sets of parents were “loving parents.”

· August 20, 2026 · 18 min read

ArgentinaConfirmed

Argentine province advances an official registry of people who refuse blood transfusions

Illustration: an open public register with empty ruled columns beside a card-index drawer

Río Negro's legislature approved the bill 28–15 on 6 August, the first of two votes its constitution requires before it can become law. The bill's operative text never mentions Jehovah's Witnesses; the explanatory findings filed with it name them, and recite three cases, two of them refusals a judge overrode.

· August 6, 2026 · 9 min read

A duty judge authorized transfusions on the basis of a fax the Court found 'very limited, incorrect and incomplete.'Confirmed

European Court Rules Spain Violated Jehovah's Witness's Rights Over Forced Blood Transfusions

Illustration: scales of justice, an IV blood bag and a legal directive

In Pindo Mulla v. Spain, the ECHR Grand Chamber unanimously found that Spain breached Rosa Edelmira Pindo Mulla's rights when a duty judge authorized three transfusions during emergency surgery despite her advance written refusals. The Court faulted the decision-making process, not the doctors' medical judgment.

· September 17, 2024 · 8 min read