Background

In Pindo Mulla v Spain [2024] ECHR 753, Ms Pindo Mulla was a Jehovah’s Witness who in 2017 had undergone extensive abdominal surgery at Soria Hospital. Before the operation, she had told the hospital that, as a Witness, she could not accept “transfusions of whole blood, red cells, white cells, platelets or plasma be given to me under any circumstances”. In 2018, however, she required further – emergency – surgery at La Paz Hospital, and three doctors there sought permission from a duty judge to transfuse her if necessary, knowing that she had “verbally expressed her rejection of all types of treatment” [25]. After consulting the local prosecutor, the duty judge gave permission “to treat the patient arriving from Soria, whose identity is unknown for the moment, with the medical or surgical measures necessary to safeguard her life and physical integrity” [28] – and she was transfused during the operation [32]. She sued unsuccessfully in the domestic courts.

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