Georgetown College v. Jones

The decision supported the hospital's ethical concern in saving lives of patients admitted under their care despite the patient's and family's immediate wishes. Despite the expansion of civil liberties by the courts in the 1960s, the judicial system refused to recognize any right to refuse medical treatment for purely religious reasons.

One of the many Christian religious sects is a group called the Jehovah's Witnesses. The modern group by that name was founded in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the 1870s by Charles Russell. By the late 1990s membership numbered 4.5 million people worldwide. Followers of the sect believe in the imminent end of the world, and in strictly following the literal words and commands of the Bible. One of these biblical commands is contained in Genesis chapter nine, which states that the consumption of blood is forbidden:

And God went on to bless Noah and his sons and to say to them: "Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth. And a fear of you and a terror of you will continue upon every living creature of the earth and upon every flying creature of the heavens, upon everything that goes moving on the ground, and upon all the fishes of the sea. Into your hand they are now given. Every moving animal that is alive may serve as food for you. As in the case of the green vegetation, I do give it all to you. Only flesh with its soul--its blood--you must not eat."

In keeping with their literalist approach, the Jehovah's Witnesses traditionally would not eat blood sausages or blood puddings. They had few serious conflicts with the medical profession until the 1940s, when blood transfusions and the technology of blood storage in blood banks became standardized and commonplace. In 1945, a Jehovah's Witness publication called The Watchtower issued the ruling that blood transfusions were akin to consuming blood. Consequences to the individual who violates the prohibition are significant including excommunication from the church and forfeiting the prospect of eternal life.