Mercy Hospital Victoria given authority to force pregnant schoolgirl to have blood transfusion
A PREGNANT schoolgirl could be forced to have a blood transfusion against her will when she gives birth this weekend, after the Supreme Court granted a hospital’s bid to save her life, despite her religious beliefs.
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A BID to force a pregnant schoolgirl to have a blood transfusion against her will when she gives birth this weekend has been granted by the Supreme Court.
Mercy Hospital Victoria sought an urgent ruling giving it the authority to give the girl blood amid fears she faces a heightened risk of suffering a post-partum haemorrhage because of her small size and large baby.
The court heard the Jehovah’s Witness — identified in court by the pseudonym D1 — has just turned 17 and told the Mercy Hospital she did not want a transfusion during or after the birth even if her life was risk because of her religious beliefs.
LEGAL STOUSH AFTER PREGNANT TEEN REFUSES TRANSFUSION
Jehovah’s Witnesses forbid followers from receiving blood or blood products.
The girl’s mother — identified as D2 — told the court through an interpreter that forcing her daughter to undergo a transfusion would have a psychological impact on her wellbeing “something like having violence done to her or being raped”.
D1, who is due to be induced at 4pm on Sunday, did not address the court but her mother said she wanted to do the right thing by Jehovah and that her family would by psychologically damaged if forced to have a transfusion.
Obstetrician and gynaecologist Jacqueline Van Dam told the court first-time mothers were already at higher risk of complications and, although D1 was fit and healthy, as a “small, young person” carrying a baby whose size was in the top 85th percentile, she was at even greater risk.
Dr Van Dam told the court D1 seemed to be of “average intellect and immature”.
“She still believes (naively) that all will be well and if anything goes wrong she will be protected by her faith,” Dr Van Damn wrote in a statement to the court.
Royal Children’s Hospital consulting psychiatrist Associate Professor Campbell Paul told the court he found D1 to be somewhat dependant on her family and community and some of her language was suggestive of being influenced by others.
Prof Paul said having already suffered “considerable disruption and trauma’ in her life and breaking her religious beliefs by having premarital sex she could be “frightened” about “further punishment”.
Justice Cameron Macaulay found D1 did not have sufficient understanding of what the impact of her refusal of a transfusion would have on her, her unborn child and her family.
He ruled it was in her best interests that the hospital be given the power to give D1 blood or blood products, but only as a last resort where other alternatives had been exhausted and she was at risk of death of serious injury.