“You shall not eat the blood of any creature, for the life of every creature is its blood” (Lev. 17:14). This is just one of many passages in the Bible on which Jehovah's Witnesses base their beliefs. To summarize the above excerpt, Jehovah's Witnesses strongly believe that contributing to the health of their body through any type of blood is not the will of God. However, in serious cases, ethical questions must be raised regarding the mental capacity and legal competence of the patient. In special cases involving minor patients, where mental capacity is taken into account, parents should not have a dominant opinion on how their child wishes to undergo surgery, based on their own personal beliefs. The hospital was faced with a difficult decision to make regarding a particular case. involving a minor Jehovah's Witness. A fifteen-year-old girl was taken to the emergency room after being in a car accident. There are four options that the doctor can consider: refuse the operation, perform the operation without blood taking into account the wishes of the parents, perform the operation with blood respecting the patient's decision, or complete the operation with blood and do not inform the parents. In asking whether or not the parents should make the decision for the child in this case, concerns could be raised about whether the patient is being put at risk by their own parents. When a parent bases a life-saving decision on religious beliefs that the patient might not even reciprocate, do they care about the child or their religious reputation? In this particular case, the patient's surgery would be a low risk, high benefit procedure and the patient expresses her wishes in favor of...... middle of paper ......usion? Remember that Jehovah requires us to abstain from blood. This means that under no circumstances should we introduce other people's blood or even our own stored blood into our bodies. (Acts 21:25) Therefore, true Christians will not accept blood transfusions. They will accept other types of medical treatments, such as transfusion of non-blood products. They want to live, but they will not try to save their lives by breaking God's laws. —Matthew 16:25. Justice is the fourth and final principle of medical ethics. On all legal grounds, any situation the doctor can choose is perfectly legal, however, there is a conflict of interest in this case regarding the patient's religious beliefs versus the religious beliefs of the parents and the church. Is it permissible to perform the operation knowing that the legal guardians do not approve of the patient's wishes?