Department of Labor Law and Social Welfare Law, Faculty of Law, Comenius University, 810 00 Bratislava, Slovakia.
Department of Community and Occupational Medicine, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, 9713 AV Groningen, The Netherlands.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Dec 30;19(1):387. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19010387.
Jehovah's Witnesses (JWs) are known as a religious group compliant with the national laws in the case of smoking, but not-compliant when it comes to blood treatment. Their beliefs prevent them from taking part in a blood transfusion, which is widely included in standard methods of a life-saving treatment. The aim of this study was to compare the behavior of JWs regarding their approach to blood treatment and to smoking in relation to legal regulations in the field of health. We measured JWs' compliance with health laws regarding blood treatment and smoking (the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control-FCTC). We used the concept of a semi-autonomous social field by Moore and the theory of planned behavior developed by Ajzen. Our findings show that in the case of JWs, the group rules often prevail over state rules contained in generally-binding legislation. In the case of smoking, this means that they seem compliant to the FCTC and to their group rules. In the case of blood treatment, it seems that they are breaking the national rules, because of their group rules. Breaking the latter can result in exclusion from the JWs community. JWs are compliant with national laws as long as these are congruent with their own group rules. If this is not the case, the group influence is very strong and the fear of exclusion from the JW group is often greater than the potential negative health consequences in real life.
耶和华见证人（Jehovah's Witnesses，简称 JW）被认为是一个在吸烟问题上遵守国家法律的宗教团体，但在血液治疗方面却不遵守规定。他们的信仰使他们无法接受输血，而输血在广泛的救命治疗方法中被广泛采用。本研究旨在比较 JW 对血液治疗和吸烟的态度与卫生领域法律规定之间的行为。我们衡量了 JW 对血液治疗和吸烟的卫生法律的遵守情况（《烟草控制框架公约》）。我们使用了摩尔的半自治社会领域概念和阿杰恩的计划行为理论。我们的研究结果表明，在 JW 群体中，群体规则往往优先于一般立法中包含的国家规则。在吸烟方面，这意味着他们似乎遵守了《烟草控制框架公约》和他们的群体规则。在血液治疗方面，他们似乎违反了国家规则，因为他们的群体规则。违反后者可能导致被 JW 社区排斥。只要国家法律与他们自己的群体规则一致，JW 就会遵守国家法律。如果情况并非如此，那么群体的影响力就非常强大，而对被 JW 群体排斥的恐惧往往大于现实生活中潜在的负面健康后果。
