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This is playing out in my province right now, so I thought I'd see what other people thought.

The story: A Jehovah's Witnesses couple gave birth to sextuplets in Vancouver. They asked for privacy, so details surrounding their names and their babies are few. The babies were born prematurely after 25 weeks of gestation, so they were small and their health fragile.

Anyways, because of their religion, they do not want blood transfusions given to their babies because of their religion. Well, one of the babies has since died, and rumors are that a second one has died as well. The remaining babies have been put into the care of the provincial government, and some of the remaining babies have been given blood transfusions.

The family is protesting that the transfusions are against their religion, and they are demanding an apology. The provincial government has said that in situations like this, the welfare of the children overrides the right to practice one's own religion and raise their children in it. The provincial government says it is acting in the best interest of the children, since they are babies and are not able to speak for themselves, nor give an opinion as to whether or not they'd want to be raised in the same religion as their parents.

Thoughts? Opinions? Agree or disagree?

While personally I can't fathom not doing everything to help your child, it's their life. Also, it wasn't guaranteed that the blood transfusions were going to work.

The problem with that is that there was also a case where a teenager refused chemo, and the courts were trying to force it on him. While I know he has more of a sayso, they didn't want him to go through that and wanted an alternative treatment.

I think it's stupid and personally I don't understand the contradiction. It's okay to use fertility treatments and drugs, but not ok for your children to get a potentially lifesaving transfusion? Still, it's their choice, their children. I can see how this can potentially be a slippery slope. For example, people have living wills and DNRs that refuse medical treatment, how will those fall into the scenario?

It sucks for them, but at the point that children are dying this steps from religious conviction to fatal neglect. When your children are dying preventable deaths, you are doing something wrong. I don't think any god would have the balls to say "You let your kids die needlessly, welcome to Heaven".