Is mRNA in vaccinated blood donations? – Autonomy in Healthcare
Medical Autonomy in Healthcare
A question that seems to come our way pretty often is – Is mRNA in vaccinated blood donations? This is not an area in which we have authority, but we have listed examples of autonomy within the healthcare system, and how one can use the My Medical Choice system, empowering them to make the choices that best suit their circumstances, no matter what their decisions.
Due to its importance in protecting people from unwanted medical interventions, the Advance Decision Notice (or Living Will) is featured in most of the articles and videos on the My Medical Choice Blog.
Of course, there are many other great features within our medical protection system, but for the purpose of this post, we will focus on the Advanced Decision Notice.
Advanced Decision Notice – aka, Living Will
Firstly, it is good to keep in mind that an Advanced Decision Notice (ADN) or Living Will is a legal document that makes clear your healthcare wishes and decisions (or ‘directives’) in case you become unable to communicate or make decisions for yourself. It helps guide your medical care and treatment when you can’t express your preferences directly. Here are some types of medical information that can be included in an ADN:
Life-Sustaining Treatments: Specify your preferences regarding life-sustaining treatments, such as artificial nutrition (tube feeding) and hydration, ventilators, dialysis, and other interventions that can prolong your life. You can state whether you want these treatments to be continued, withheld, or withdrawn under certain circumstances.
Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR): Indicate whether you want CPR to be performed if your heart stops or you stop breathing. This includes both traditional CPR and interventions like defibrillation.
Mechanical Ventilation: Detail your choices about using mechanical ventilation to assist your breathing in case of respiratory failure.
Comfort Care and Pain Management: Specify your wishes for pain management and comfort care. This can include your preferences for pain relief, sedation, and any other measures to ensure your comfort.
Organ and Tissue Donation: State your decisions regarding organ and tissue donation for transplantation or medical research.
Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) Orders: If you wish to have a Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) order, which means you do not want to receive CPR or other life-saving interventions, you can include this in your ADN or Living Will.
Specific Medical Treatments: You can include your preferences regarding specific medical treatments or interventions for particular conditions, especially if you have strong feelings about them.
Quality of Life Considerations: Express your values and beliefs about the quality of life you consider acceptable. This can help guide medical professionals in making decisions that align with your values.
In Case of Emergency (ICE) contact: Designate ICE contacts to ensure the directives in your ADN are adhered to. Add them to the medical alert system that comes as standard with My Medical Choice membership so they can be notified automatically by SMS text should you be taken to the hospital. An ICE contact is not the same as a legally appointed attorney and has no decision-making powers under the law – although an attorney can be named as an ICE contact on an ADN.
Court-registered Designated Decision-Maker: Appoint a healthcare/welfare lasting power of attorney to oversee your healthcare needs. This person will make decisions on your behalf if the medical situation is not covered in your living will or if unexpected decisions need to be made.
Revocation and Amendment: Clearly state how you can revoke or change your ADN (Living Will), and under what circumstances such changes can be made.
What’s a Living Will?
Lorna’s story
Lorna was a thoughtful and proactive individual. She had always believed in the importance of making her own decisions, especially when it came to her healthcare. As she entered her later years, she decided it was time to create an Advance Decision Notice to ensure her wishes were known and respected.
One day, Lorna suffered a sudden stroke that left her unable to communicate. She was rushed to the hospital, where doctors worked quickly to stabilize her condition. Lorna’s daughter, Emily, arrived at the hospital, concerned and anxious about her mother’s situation.
Fortunately, Lorna had prepared an ADN. In her document, she clearly stated that she did not want to be kept on life support if there was little chance of recovery. She had also expressed her desire for comfort-focused care and pain management.
When Emily arrived, the medical team informed her about Lorna’s condition and asked about her mother’s preferences. Emily was relieved to be able to present the ADN to the doctors. It outlined Lorna’s wishes in detail, providing clear guidance on the treatments and interventions she would want.
Advanced Decision Notice in Action
Because of Lorna’s Advance Decision Notice, the medical team knew exactly how to proceed. They focused on providing the comfort care that Lorna had requested, ensuring that she was as pain-free and peaceful as possible. Emily felt a sense of relief knowing that she was honouring her mother’s wishes during such a challenging time.
Lorna’s ADN not only provided guidance for her medical care, but it also brought peace of mind to her family. They didn’t have to make difficult decisions in the midst of stress and uncertainty. Instead, they were able to focus on being there for Lorna and supporting her as she approached the end of her life.
Peter’s story
Peter works in natural healthcare as a chiropractor. His wife Charlotte is a nutritionist and they have two young children. They spend a lot of time researching health and medical-related subjects and consider themselves very well-informed.
Once the children were born, both Peter and Charlotte decided they wanted to officially organise their financial and healthcare affairs. They both have Lasting Power of Attorney for each other, and after much consideration, they both agreed their directives for a Living Will – or Advance Decision Notice.
Vaccinated Blood Would Be A Major Issue For Them
Both Peter and Charlotte chose not to vaccinate their children, and they primarily use natural healthcare options if any of the family is sick. They also made the decision not to have any Covid-related medical interventions themselves. However, they also considered that should either of them require a blood transfusion, Covid vaccine in blood would be a major issue for them, so they updated their Living Will in 2021 in order to reject blood from vaccinated sources.
Due to their Covid vaccine refusal, and the potential for receiving contaminated blood in the event of an emergency, Peter researched alternatives to blood transfusion and was particularly interested in natural alternatives to blood transfusion, as well as blood substitutes for transfusion, as these options aligned with his and Charlotte’s beliefs and lifestyle.
mRNA in Blood Donations?
Confident that there were enough safe, natural alternatives to blood transfusion available to avoid ‘vaxxed blood’, as Peter calls it, both Peter and Charlotte stipulated in their living wills that they wished to refuse blood transfusions as well as mRNA in blood and other medical products.
When Charlotte was involved in a car accident, she was quite badly hurt and suffered severe internal bleeding. Peter couldn’t get to the hospital straight away, so he emailed a copy of Charlotte’s Living Will across to the medical team, so that they could comply with her directives until he got there.
Directives in her Living Will
Because of the directives in her living will, she was taken to a hospital within her trust that had the staff and equipment needed to provide autologous donation and bloodless surgery. Autologous donation involves using your own blood, cleaning it up, and recycling it back into the body. Charlotte was treated in line with her healthcare directives, and recovered quickly and without any complications.
Both Charlotte and Peter agreed that things could have been very different had Charlotte not had a living will in place, as she felt there was a high chance she could have received vaccinated blood.
In the cases (listed above), some of the more difficult decisions had already been made by Lorna and Peter and Charlotte, but an Advanced Decision Notice can do a lot more than that. It can also instruct medical teams on what medications, treatments, or medical procedures you wish to refuse – at your wishes MUST be honoured, even if to do so may result in your death.
A valid Advance Decision Notice is a legal document that is powerful enough to stand on its own. It protects you from unwanted medical interventions. It represents YOUR VOICE and cannot, therefore, be overridden.
Understanding Bodily Autonomy and UK NHS Principles
Bodily autonomy and the principles of the National Health Service (NHS) are closely related concepts that inform how healthcare is delivered and how patients’ rights and choices are respected within the NHS framework. It forms part of the official documented NHS Patient Policy and is available to the public for scrutiny if required. Let’s explore both of these concepts in more detail:
Principles of Bodily Autonomy
- Bodily Autonomy: Bodily autonomy is a fundamental principle of medical ethics and human rights. It asserts that individuals have the right to make decisions about their own bodies and what happens to them, including decisions about medical treatment and procedures.
- It encompasses the idea that individuals have the right to control what is done to their bodies and can provide or withhold consent for medical interventions. This concept is based on the principle of respect for persons and personal autonomy.
- Bodily autonomy also includes the right to refuse treatment, even if a healthcare provider believes it is in the patient’s best interest. Informed consent is a critical component of respecting bodily autonomy.
Understanding NHS Principles
- NHS Principles: The NHS in the United Kingdom is guided by several core principles that are designed to ensure equitable and high-quality healthcare for all citizens. These principles include:
- Universal Access: The NHS provides healthcare services to all residents of the UK regardless of their ability to pay. It is based on the principle that healthcare should be accessible to everyone, free at the point of use.
- Comprehensive Service: The NHS aims to provide a wide range of healthcare services, from preventive care to specialized treatments, to meet the healthcare needs of the population.
- Equity: The NHS is committed to providing healthcare services that are fair and equitable, addressing the healthcare needs of all individuals, regardless of their background or circumstances.
- Patient Choice: Patients are given the right to choose their healthcare provider and have a say in their treatment options, in line with the principle of patient-centred care. This aligns with the concept of bodily autonomy, as patients have the freedom to make decisions about their healthcare.
- Patient Involvement: Patients are encouraged to be actively involved in decisions about their care. This involves shared decision-making and respecting the patient’s values, preferences, and consent.
- Prevention: The NHS emphasizes the importance of preventive healthcare to reduce the burden of illness and promote overall well-being.
Bodily Autonomy and the NHS
Bodily autonomy and the NHS principles are interconnected because the NHS is built on the idea of patient-centred care and respecting patients’ rights and choices.
Patients within the NHS have the right to make informed decisions about their healthcare, including the right to refuse treatment or request specific interventions, as long as these choices are within the bounds of the law and ethical guidelines.
This respect for bodily autonomy is a key component of the patient-provider relationship and the delivery of healthcare services within the NHS.
Remember:
My Medical Choice system is all about Informed Medical Choice and Bodily Autonomy.
“Informed medical choice” refers to the process of making healthcare decisions based on a thorough understanding of the relevant information, risks, benefits, and alternatives associated with a particular medical treatment, procedure, or intervention.
This is grounded in the principles of patient autonomy and shared decision-making, emphasising the importance of individuals actively participating in decisions about their own healthcare.
This means things like taking certain stressful decisions away from your loved ones as these have already been decided via a Lasting Power of Attorney and Advanced Decision Notice, as in Lorna’s situation, or, individuals wanting alternatives to blood transfusion as they don’t want mRNA in blood, and/or one’s rights for covid vaccine refusal, as in Peter and Charlotte’s case.
My Medical Choice is fully aware that this may initially appear a bit overwhelming. Where does one even start?
You might be surprised to learn that, once you know the processes, setting up the procedure is actually fairly simple and quick. My Medical Choice has made a number of bite-sized, informative videos that discuss this, and our FAQs on the website also provide answers to many common issues.
My Medical Choice have developed a TRIED AND TESTED legal system, that not only notifies your chosen contacts (via Medical Alert System), but also informs you what your options are, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, how to navigate the UK medical healthcare system with minimal stress for you or your loved ones.
Peace of mind for you and your loved ones.
For more information on what has been discussed within this article, check out other articles within our blog, or, the FAQs on the site
Our blog, and main site has lots of information and small bite-sized videos that explain the following.
- Empowering Patients Through Informed Decision-Making
- Alternatives to blood transfusion
- What to do in a medical emergency
For an in-depth post on Empowering Patients Through Informed Decision Making, then see – Informed Consent Within UK Healthcare System
My Medical Choice is not here to judge your decision, it is about empowering people to have control over their own healthcare.
My Medical Choice is all about your Medical Autonomy in healthcare and making sure the emergency team treating you follows your specific wishes. When used correctly, it is a powerful system that can notify medical teams about allergies, procedures etc., right down to more personalised decisions such as people concerned about mRNA in blood, and/or, wanting a solution to vaccinated blood (as listed in the examples in some articles).
Just a friendly reminder that no information in this publication constitutes legal or medical advice from My Medical Choice or any of our affiliates and the contents of this document are for educational and support purposes only.