Holy Innocents

We all know, of course, because the Vicar of Downing Street and others have assured us of it, that religious belief is entirely compatible with science and sanity; hence, no doubt, the decision by Selly Oak hospital in Birmingham to respect the delusions of a fifteen-year-old Jehovah's Witness who refused a blood transfusion after a car accident and died as a result. "It is a very complex area that has to be approached on a case-by-case basis," said a spokesbeing, who regrettably was unable to make clear why the Hippocratic Oath was held in this case to be subordinate to a vulgar misreading of some antiquated dietary fads. Doubtless, like everything else, it is a matter of market forces. Humouring a child to death is almost certainly a more economical option than imposing an unwanted treatment, particularly when his family or the cult to which they belong might well have sued the hospital for the sin of keeping him alive.