A heartbreaking and utterly pointless set of deaths in Australia illustrate perfectly the soundness of William Clifford’s famous dictum: “It is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.”
The pregnant Jehovah’s Witness came to a Sydney hospital with leukemia and a directive against blood transfusions, a decision stemming from her religious beliefs.
The hospital’s staff was faced with an extremely difficult situation: How to treat the 28-year-old woman and her fetus while respecting that her religious beliefs prohibited them from administering potentially life-saving treatments.
The case ended tragically with the fetus dying in utero, followed by the mother, who suffered from organ failure.
The woman was 7-months pregnant, and the fetus was viable. What is more, modern treatment of her form of leukemia makes it quite likely that the mother and the baby would have lived; the survival rate is over 80%.
Had the doctors removed the baby via a Caesarean delivery, unable to offset the inevitable blood loss with a transfusion, it would have amounted to scheduling the death of the mother — an ethical No-Go zone.
So: two needless deaths, a husband’s life thrown into disarray, doctors traumatized by a simultaneous request for help and proscription against help. Let’s not forget, either, that the baby was certainly not a Jehovah’s Witness; the mother effectively chose for it to die. You might expect the anti-abortion crowd would be up in arms, and some are, but her fellow JWs are praising her faithfulness.
Faith — belief without evidence, or even in spite of evidence — is not just about epistemology; it is morally consequential. I say again, then: When some crooning yahoo urges you to set aside your mind and your reason, set aside your doubts, and “just believe” — run for your life, because that is what is at stake.