A judge in Belfast has granted doctors permission to give a 15-year-old Jehovah's Witness girl a blood transfusion during a life saving operation despite objections from both the girl and her father on religious grounds. The judge said that the procedure should be undertaken if it was in the child's best interest. Mr Justice Higgins told Belfast High Court that "acting in the best interests of the girls physical well being, but respecting her and her fathers religious views, the circumstances require that the surgical procedure should take place with the option to administer a transfusion of blood or blood products". Mr Justice Higgins said that the dilemma which the situation created for the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was immense.
