Religion – Weltanschauung – Recht [ RWR ]

The applicants are Lilian Elisabeth Lindholm, born in 1953 and currently living in Randers (Denmark), and the estate of her late husband, Leif Ingolf Lindholm, born in 1947. They are/were both Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Ms Lindholm’s husband died on 21 October 2014; he had spent the previous month in hospital after a two-metre fall through a roof, first disoriented and then unconscious. The case concerns a blood transfusion administered to him, despite his carrying a “blood-refusal card” at the time of the accident.

Ms Lindholm unsuccessfully brought legal proceedings to complain that the blood transfusion had been against her husband’s will. In 2022 the Supreme Court found in particular that doctors had avoided giving Mr Lindholm blood until they had considered it necessary to save his life and that there had been a legal basis for that decision in national law, which provided that a patient’s refusal of a blood transfusion had to be “current and informed”.

The applicants complain that the Supreme Court judgment finding the blood transfusion lawful, despite Mr Lindholm’s previously stated refusal of the procedure on account of his religious beliefs, was in violation of Articles 8 (right to respect for private and family life) and 9 (freedom of religion) of the European Convention on Human Rights.

• No violation of Article 8 read in the light of Article 9

ECHR 255 (2024) Press release 05.11.2024