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Religious Extremism Influencing Public Health

One from my own (tangential) experience:

I have a relative being treated for a serious illness, they were in a joint oncology/haematology ward for quite a long time (months) so got to know other patients. One gentleman refused transfusions and a bone-marrow transplant due to his very devout Jehovah's Witness beliefs. He had young children. He died.
It's unusual for anyone to exhibit that amount of strength of belief. On the whole most of the JWs that I have known have been extremely sincere people, better behaved than most ostensible "Christians." It's a pity that part of the package (besides the usual Pauline nonsense) is this rather irrelevant interpretation of the Old Testament saying that blood mustn't be eaten (no doubt due to the risk of contamination).
 
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