Blood transfusions, Jehovah's Witnesses and the rule of inviolability of the human body

"A few months ago, a young married woman in her early twenties was admitted to a local hospital in order to give birth to her second child. Shortly after delivery of a normal baby, she began to hemorrhage quite heavily and the physicians in attendance felt it imperative that she be transfused with whole blood in order to compensate the quantities of blood already lost. Both the patient, who was still conscious and lucid, and her husband refused to consent to the transfusions on the grounds of their religious beliefs as Jehovah's Witnesses. As the woman lapsed into unconsciousness, her husband. eventually reinforced by a number of co-religionists. sat in vigil to make certain that her final wishes would be respected by the hospital staff. Within a rnatter of hours, she died. [...]