The article records that Adrian Yeatts, then fourteen, was asked directly by his oncologist whether he realised he could die without a transfusion and answered ‘Yes’ and ‘If that’s what it takes’, and that after the biopsy the doctor said aggressive chemotherapy with transfusions was the only way he could possibly live.
Claim ID claim-blood-1994-yeatts-warned-and-refusedConcerns March 1993Explicit statement
The article records that Adrian Yeatts, then fourteen, was asked directly by his oncologist whether he realised he could die without a transfusion and answered ‘Yes’ and ‘If that’s what it takes’, and that after the biopsy the doctor said aggressive chemotherapy with transfusions was the only way he could possibly live. Source: Awake!, 22 May 1994Source: Awake!, 22 May 1994Source: Awake!, 22 May 1994
The organisation’s position or later explanation: The article presents this exchange as evidence of an informed and independent decision, and quotes his counsel’s satisfaction that ‘he exercised a mind of his own’.
22 May 1994 · p.4 · pars. 11-14 (Watchtower Online Library paragraph ids p11-p14) · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“Dr. Jardine asked, “Do you realize that you could die if you don’t take a blood transfusion?” “Yes.” “And you’re willing to do that?” “If that’s what it takes.””
The exchange is reported as taking place at the Dr. Charles A. Janeway Child Health Centre, St John’s, Newfoundland, while Adrian Yeatts, then 14, was awaiting a biopsy to be performed without blood. The oncologist is named in the article as Dr Lawrence Jardine.
Provenance and verification note for Awake!, He ‘Remembered His Creator in the Days of His Youth’
Confidence note. Opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026 and the wording, page marker and paragraph confirmed against the article text.
22 May 1994 · p.5 · par. 17 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“The biopsy was performed on March 18. It showed that Adrian had a large lymphoma tumor. A subsequent bone marrow biopsy confirmed the fear that he had developed leukemia.”
The article dates the biopsy to 18 March 1993 and records that the treating oncologist then said aggressive chemotherapy with blood transfusions was the only way Adrian could possibly live, and that chemotherapy was begun without transfusions.
Provenance and verification note for Awake!, He ‘Remembered His Creator in the Days of His Youth’
Confidence note. Opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026 and the wording, page marker and paragraph confirmed against the article text.
22 May 1994 · pp.3-8 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“I just could not live with myself if I am given blood.”
The article, narrated by his father, describes Adrian Yeatts of Newfoundland, Canada, aged 14, diagnosed with a fast-growing abdominal lymphoma in March 1993 and subsequently leukaemia. Newfoundland’s Supreme Court (Justice Robert Wells) held in July 1993 that he was a mature minor whose refusal of blood would be respected. He was baptised in a hospital physiotherapy tank on 12 September 1993 and the article records that he died the next day. A boxed item describes a bloodless heart transplant for three-year-old the three-year-old in Ohio of Ohio in October 1993, reported a month later as doing well. The article also records the medical advice as the family reported it: Dr Jardine 'explained that a very aggressive chemotherapy program with blood transfusions was the only way Adrian could possibly live'; 'chemotherapy was started, without the transfusions'; and it closes by saying that he rejected transfusions 'that could conceivably have extended his present life'.
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