Argument 2

Certain religions deny medical treatments because of their faith. In the words of Crislip (Crislip, 2013) “At this point we geared up for transfusions of red cells and clotting factors and he let us know that he was a Jehovah’s Witness and, no thank you, he would not accept any blood or blood products” the patient was bleeding from the gums and they would not clot. Around a week later he was suffering ischemia (loss of oxygen to tissue) and then multiple strokes. He later died of a heart attack; this very painful death was caused by the man’s religion, for if he was not a Jehovah’s Witness then he may have been saved by the  “transfusion of red cells and clotting factors”. Another example of the denial of medical treatments is the omission known as faith healing (ignoring medical treatment in hope of a supernatural recovery). One example of this is in April of 2009; Brandon Schnabel died of pneumonia after the parents decided to pray over the infant rather than seeking medical treatment. Another example of this is in 2011 Dale and Shannon Hickman of Oregon were sentenced to 75 months in prison after turning to faith healing to say their premature new-born, which was born in a family home, died from complications that could have easily been averted with medical care. These are just a few examples of how religions have denied medical treatment resulting in pointless deaths.