Introduction Throughout history, there have been incidents where health professionals have attempted to provide medical treatments which conflicted with a patient’s religious or personal beliefs (Collier & Haliburton, 2015, pg.84). An example of a deeply rooted religious belief would be the one held by Jehovah’s Witnesses, that forbids the acceptance of blood transfusions (Trzciński et al., 2015, pg. 33). This leads to the question: what do health professionals do when a Jehovah’s Witness requires a blood transfusion to save their life? Does the health practitioner continue to provide the life-saving treatment, even though the patient refuses due to their religious belief? Through the application of the deontology theory, it will be argued that regardless of the potential health outcome, it is unethical for healthcare providers to interfere with competent patients and their rights to make decisions about their own medical treatments. What is a Deontological Theory? Deontology is an ethical theory developed by …show more content…
It is the duty of healthcare providers to inform their patients with sufficient knowledge to make coherent decisions in terms of their medical treatments (Collier & Haliburton, 2015, pg. 101). For instance, health professionals must provide a Jehovah's Witness patient with “their rights, options of treatment, and the consequences of refusing a blood transfusion”; thereby these patients can make an informed decision (Trzciński et al., 2015, pg. 36). To relate to the ethical dilemma, if a Jehovah's Witness patient is mentally competent then they have the ability to understand that their life is at risk, as well as the potential consequences of refusing a blood transfusion. Thus, healthcare professionals should respect the medial choices of the patient as they are rational beings who can make decisions for themselves (Collier & Haliburton, 2015,