Right to refuse transfusions must be respected: Quebec coroner

A “free and informed” decision to refuse blood transfusions is a right protected by law and the charter of rights and freedoms, Quebec’s deputy-chief coroner has ruled.
Coroner Luc Malouin has issued a pair of reports examining the deaths of two observant Jehovah’s Witnesses who refused transfusions and died after giving birth last year at hospitals in Montreal and Lévis.
“Each person in Quebec has this freedom of choice,” Malouin wrote in his report on