Jean-Claude Lavoie, a 26 year old Canadian Jehovah’s Witness, died in December 2006 after refusing a blood transfusion while being treated for an intestinal tumour, the Canadian TQS television network reported.

Former Jehovah’s Witness Jonathan Lavoie, Jean-Claude’s brother, has since launched an internet petition (written in French) calling on the federal government to make it illegal for a person to refuse treatment on religious grounds.
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A judge has ruled that Tawnya Nissen, a 27 year old comatose woman, may receive a blood transfusion, despite her Jehovah’s Witness husband’s objections that blood transfusions are against God’s will.

Tawnya has been unconscious since July 31, when she collapsed because of a bad reaction to a diet drug. Doctors told the family that she might need a blood transfusion if she had to undergo a tracheotomy or other emergency surgery. Tawnya has not needed a blood transfusion, and her condition has improved. But she remains unconscious, and her father — who is not a Jehovah’s Witness — asked a judge to give him, rather than her husband Chris Nissen, the power to decide on her treatment. Read more…

Doctors at the Pretoria Academic Hospital have obtained an urgent court order enabling them to give a month-old baby a blood transfusion. They felt the life of the infant – one of twins – was at stake.

But the baby’s family, who live in Sunnyside and are Jehovah’s Witnesses, are deeply distressed. Read more…

A bitter clash between religious beliefs and medical treatment led to the ultimate breakup and bankruptcy of a Calgary family, a judge has concluded in the parents’ divorce action. Read more…

Bethany made headlines in Canada after refusing to undergo blood transfusions and died of acute myeloid leukemia. Bethany’s father claims the Watchtower Society and his wife played a major role in her death. He is now fighting for sole custody of his youngest daughter who lives with her mother and is also a Jehovah’s Witness. Read more…

The state has reached a tentative agreement with a Jehovah’s Witness couple who have opposed blood transfusions for their son born 15 weeks premature. Read more…

Patience Edema, a Jehovah’s Witness, 24, died three days after giving birth to her second daughter,after refusing a vital blood transfusion. Read more…

Although Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t join the army, the U.S. Army has distributed a letter regarding the treatment of Jehovah’s Witnesses in military clinics. You can read the scanned letter here on WIS! Read more…

A devout Jehovah’s Witness died after she refused a blood transfusion which could have saved her life.She had undergone an angiogram which involved inserting a needle into her thigh. This triggered an internal bleeding. Read more…

The grieving father of a 17-year-old Jehovah’s Witness girl [Bethany Hughes] who died of leukemia says he intends to sue the religious group, claiming it destroyed his family and caused his daughter to fight against blood transfusions. Read more…