Wow. I can't personally think of anyone I've known that died because of refusing. But I thought his was the saddest quote from the article:

<"Dennis does present himself as a very mature man. But he really is just a child trying to please the adults around him," said Jan Curry, whose daughter, Morgan, is his friend.>

I'm sure he knows what he's doing. But at his age, you just don't have the life experience to make a choice like that. Ugh, what a waste.

no, I think transplants are one of those up to your consience things.

Yes, transplants are a "matter of conscience". I've personally known more than one transplant recipient.

When I was 18 I nearly died of blood loss...my count got down to 1.2, was ICU, my organs were shutting down including renal failure and was told I would die without a transfusion. I refused and miraculously, recovered. I think my own will to live kept me going but the doctors did admit that if I had taken the transfusion, my kidneys would not have been able to recover - it would have been too great a load on them at that point.

Needless to say, after my experience I'm not likely to accept blood even if someone says I need it, not for religious reasons but because there are so many medical risks involved with it. I would still elect to use the bloodless surgery program at my local hospital (one of the most advanced in the country) for the simple reason that it's the most state of the art care you can get.

In the case of lukemia, the transfusion might have extended his life and I would think that to be a personal choice.

I'm a bit of a rebel when it comes to health care. I feel that an individual should have complete control over their medical treatment. I also feel that 18 is old enough to choose...after all, it's legally old enough to enlist and die for one's country - I don't see it being any different when making life determining choices about medical care.

It makes me think back to being 14... right before I started to really question my beliefs.
If that had been me at 14 I would have fought for the same thing, there is no way at that point that I would have taken a blood transfusion.
Even now, like you *B*, I would try every other option first. In most cases there are ways to avoid transfusions.
In a way 14 is totally old enough to make up your mind... but really he only did what he was told was right and good in Jehovah's eyes. If he was raised to believe something different thats what he would believe... sigh... it's just sad, because I know now that no God or Goddess, if there even is one that is a separate entity from us as a connected people, would hate on someone for wanting to live. Its such BS and it makes me feel so many things at once... angry, sad... but also that he must have felt peace, his thoughts so intent on doing right... if only he'd had more years to grow and perhaps learn about other ways of life... and let go of his beliefs which are so full of empty promises.

"With the transfusions and other treatment, the boy had been give a 70 percent chance of surviving the next five years, the judge said in court, based on what the boy's doctors told him."

To my knowledge there is no known cure for cancer, and leukemia is the toughest one. This article fails to mention what happens after those five years, *poof* magically he's cured, or more and more treatments? Maybe when he was diagnosed in November he found out all the options and decided that he didn't want to go through five more years of pain and treatments. In my personal opinion, even though I'm pretty open minded about the whole blood thing, if I found out I had cancer and the only way to survive a couple more years was to take a blood transfusion and go through chemo (it's not a pleasant experience, my best friend's mom had to go through it for her breast cancer, which ended up taking her anyway about four years ago), I'd say "No Blood" and start preparing everything and everyone I knew for my upcoming death. But that's just me, who knows what was going through his mind?

And Joel, apparently now they can accept organ transplants, it's a matter on conscience. They no longer have a No Blood card it's now a living will kind of thing and they can check the things they want or don't want, my folx showed it to me last year.

so, let me get this straight: new light says jw's can now accept organ transplants on the basis that it's a personal choice? ok. where does that leave those who died before this light was revealed? (i've had the same question about those who lived & died before jw's were founded. what happens to those in the 1600s? i asked about this before i was df'ed & was pointed to the god's word of a thousand years book, which was more a history of jw's & didn't really answer my question) anyway, what happens if/when they're resurrected in the new system?

"you remember that whole deal about blood & organ transplants? well, it turns out we were wrong & you could have had that liver, kidney, heart, etc. sorry about that..."

j