The refusal of medically indicated blood transfusions by Jehovah’s Witnesses sectarians resulted in the death of 18 patients, including eight children, according to an article on Thursday in Komsomolskaya Pravda (KP) citing examples of such deaths. Two criminal cases were opened concerning the deaths of children in such cases, the first was filed in Kogalym (in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug in Western Siberia), and a second was opened in October in Moscow. The mother of the child who died in Kogalym refuses to recognise any criminal responsibility in her action. “I wanted the best treatment for him! I told the doctors, ‘Blood isn’t medicine! Blood can be infected!’” KP quoted the mother as saying. After the institution of criminal proceedings in Kogalym, investigators from prokuratura raided the premises of the local JWs, they seized prohibited books, as the courts previously recognised some Jehovah’s Witnesses literature as extremist material for its attacks against other religions. The child’s mother tried to impose her rules on her eldest son, who is in school, citing her “parental rights”, but his teachers stood up for him against her, he’s a well-mannered boy, good at sports. As a result, his mother didn’t drag him to JW affairs and didn’t impose any of their religious taboos upon him. Under the article of the Criminal Code that she’s charged under, the mother could face a year in prison, but, more likely, she shall face a fine, instead.
28 October 2010
Interfax-Religion
source (in Russian): http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=37994
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