Jehovah Witness couple disown five-year-old son for receiving blood

A Jehovah Witness man, Kwabena Afum and his wife, Margret Afum aka Abena Oduma, have had a brush with the law after creating an unnecessary chaotic scene at the New Edubiase Government Hospital in a bid to prevent medical officers from giving blood to their son.

Kwabena Afum was arrested last week Tuesday and granted police enquiry bail the next day for causing panic and chaos by allegedly mobilizing some members of his church to foment trouble at the hospital.


He has since disowned five-year-old Japheth Asamoah, who is currently in the custody of the Social Welfare Department in the district, even after his release.


According to Dr. Manye Mensah, Medical Superintendent Officer at the hospital, Japheth was brought to the hospital on April 25, 2010 in an anaemic weak condition.


He said upon examination, he discovered the young boy had lost lots of blood which needed urgent replacement and therefore decided to stable his condition with a medication and oxygen that did not work.


He told Daily Guide that whilst the patient’s condition appeared stable because of the heamorrhage, he informed the couple about the need for a blood transfusion to replace the lost blood, which the couple resisted, citing their religious belief.


Bent on saving the life of the little boy, the Medical Superintendent indicated that as he and his team began the process of transfusion, Kwabena Afum and some members of Jehovah Witnesses besieged the theatre room in a bid to prevent them from carrying out their professional duties.

The police, upon hearing the story, rushed to the place to restore law and order and arrested the boy’s father in the process.


He has since disowned the poor boy for having received blood, as lawyers from the church intervened and secured his bail.


ASP Ebenezer Benson, New Edubiase District Police Commander, confirmed the arrest as well as the incident to Daily Guide and added that the farmer had been granted bail awaiting prosecution.


Jehovah Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with non-Trinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity.


The religion reports worldwide membership of over 7 million adherents involved in evangelism.


They are directed by a governing body of elders which exercise authority on all doctrinal matters. Witnesses base their beliefs on the Bible and prefer their own translation, the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures.

Jehovah’s Witnesses are best known for their door-to-door preaching, distribution of literature such as The Watchtower and Awake! and for their refusal of military service and blood transfusion even in life-threatening situations.


The group emerged from the Bible Students movement, founded in the late 19th Century by Charles Taze Russell, with the formation of Zion’s Watch Tower Tract Society.


Following a schism in the movement, the branch that maintained control of the society underwent significant organizational changes bringing its authority structure and methods of evangelism under centralized control.


Since its inception, the Watch Tower Society has taught that the present world order is in its last days and will soon be destroyed by Armageddon.