Poll: Jehovah's Witness patient among baixada santista and ABC paulista cardiologists

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

^IClínica Santa Rita, Guarujá

^IIInstituto do Coração da Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP - Brazil

Mailing Address

Keywords: Environmental Statistics; Jehovah's Witnesses; Bioethics.

Dear Editor,

In the national and international^1-3 medical literature, there is a growing number of manuscripts that focus on bioethics on the medical conduct. A relevant point is the potential for conflict between the benefit (the standpoint of a prudent and diligent doctor) and the patients' autonomy (depending on their preferences and values). One of these realities is the health care to Jehovah's Witness (JW) where the transfusion of blood has an undisputable clinical indication. Grinberg and Chehaibar⁴ observed that only 56.7% of the Brazilian cardiologists interviewed accept to provide health care to JW and 40% of them would not transfuse blood under any circumstances.

An identical research study we conducted with 85 cardiologists affiliated with the regional branches of ABC and Santos of the Cardiology Society of the State of São Paulo revealed, compared with the national headquarters of the Society of Cardiology, a higher percentage of colleagues who accept to provide health care to JW (65.9%) and those who, among them, would not transfuse blood under any circumstances (47.3%). A significant aspect was the identification of a trend of young cardiologists (> 50 years old) whose accepted to provide health care to JW and not performing blood transfusion compared to older cardiologists.

The data suggests that in these regions of the state of São Paulo the more recent inclusion of young cardiologists leads to a slighter resistance to provide health care to JW and greater tolerance to religious belief.

References

• 1. Azambuja LE, Garrafa V. Testemunhas de Jeová ante o uso de hemocomponentes e hemoderivados. Rev Assoc Med Bras. 2010;56(6):705-9.
• 2. Altisent R, Buil B, Delgado-Marroquín MT. Are ethics committees in tune with the "epidemiology of ethical issues"? Am J Bioeth. 2012;12(11):27-9.
• 3. Strech D, Schildmann J. Why the "appraisal of guidelines for research and evaluation" instrument can and should further inform ethics policy work. Am J Bioeth. 2012;12(11):25-7.
• 4. Grinberg M, Chehaibar GZ. Enquete Testemunha de Jeová. Arq Bras Cardiol. 2010;95(6):765-6.

Poll - Jehovah's Witness patient among baixada santista and ABC paulista cardiologists

Antonio Mendes Neto^I; Max Grinberg^II

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  31 July 2013
• Date of issue
  July 2013