Medical consent

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BrazilConfirmed

Brazil's Supreme Court twice lists and twice pulls its judgment on transfusions given against a patient's refusal

Illustration: a wall calendar with one date circled above a judicial bench rail holding two case files, an open statute book and an hourglass

The STF's president put ADPF 618 and ADPF 642 on the plenary calendar for 30 September, removed them, relisted them for 21 October, and removed them again on 15 October; neither docket, as of 21 October, gives a reason. The merits judgment, suspended twice since 2025, records two justices' positions. Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania and the Associação das Testemunhas Cristãs de Jeová are admitted friends of the court in ADPF 618.

· Updated October 21, 2026 · 11 min read

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