NoBlood

Jan B. Wade · #1 (**permalink**) 05-07-2005, 01:20 PM

http://www.canada.com/vancouver/stor...d-465a72f33b6e

Teen mulls appeal in transfusion case

Greg JoyceCanadian Press
Friday, May 06, 2005

VANCOUVER (CP) -- A British Columbia teenager being treated for cancer may decide early next week whether to appeal a court decision in Ontario that prohibits her from refusing blood transfusions that would violate her faith as a Jehovah's Witness.

The girl's lawyer, Shane Brady, said the family is trying to decide whether to appeal the Superior Court ruling that ordered the 14-year-old girl, who cannot be named, back to her home province of B.C. for treatment.

On Friday, Brady and Jeremy Berland, assistant deputy minister of children and family development for B.C., disagreed over what transpired at a court hearing on Tuesday in Toronto.

The Ontario judge said he did not find any fault with Justice Mary Boyd of the B.C. Supreme Court who ruled April 11 that the girl, because she is a minor, could not refuse transfusions if doctors deem them medically necessary.

The girl's lawyer said his client wanted to get the Ontario court to consider the evidence of Schneider Children's Hospital in New York, which has experience in treating cancer like the girl's without using blood transfusions.

Brady acknowledged that the New York hospital said it also might have to use blood transfusions.

"The B.C. (Children's Hospital) said they never had experience and never tried," said Brady.

The girl and her family wanted to be allowed to receive the chemotherapy for osteogenic sarcoma at the New York hospital, he said.

Berland, who attended the court hearing, said the evidence before the Ontario judge "was that the B.C. treatment would be identical to the treatment from any other hospital in Canada or (in the U.S.)."

"Doctors here are committed to trying to treat this girl as far as possible without using blood, which is exactly what we are told the U.S. doctors are saying as well."

Brady said the family was upset at the B.C. government accusing them of fleeing B.C. to get another opinion.

"What is frustrating for my clients is that the family was here getting a second opinion," said Brady. "The B.C. ministry knew where they were and were having regular appointments here with Hospital for Sick Children."

The lawyer said it was "disingenuous for the B.C. ministry to say they fled when they knew exactly where they were and what they were doing."

Berland again disagreed with Brady.

"That is not the evidence discussed in Ontario," said Berland.

The Ontario judge said that no reasonable person could come to any conclusion but that they were trying to flee the jurisdiction, said Berland.

"We do not want to see this girl from B.C. go to New York and possibly flee that jurisdiction when they say it's time to do a blood transfusion," said Berland.

He said the family had already left the B.C. jurisdiction once despite a court order and against medical advice.

"We're not prepared to see this girl's health or life risked by moving to another jurisdiction for essentially exactly the same treatment."

After the Ontario ruling, police escorted the girl along with her mother and father out of the courthouse.

Brady said the B.C. ministry had an air ambulance waiting and she was flown back to Children's Hospital in Vancouver.

Jehovah's Witnesses believe that blood is a sacred source of life not to be misused or tampered with under any circumstance.

Â© Canadian Press 2005