Word: labrenz
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Labrenz was quoted as saying, ". . . we do not have control of life." How illogical can one be? The child needed a transfusion to live; but Labrenz and his wife refused to permit the transfusion; therefore, the child dies, though they "do not have control" of her life. Instead of each of them having a Bible in hand, one should have been studying an elementary text on logic...
...second row facing Judge Robert Dunne sat Cheryl's parents, Darrell Labrenz, 25, and his wife Rhoda, 20. They had been childhood sweethearts at Dalton (pop. 400) in Wisconsin's dairyland. Little more than a year ago, they joined Jehovah's Witnesses and moved to Chicago with their first child, Kit. (As often happens in cases of Rh incompatibility, there had been no difficulty with the first-born.) Now, red-eyed and distraught, each with a Bible in hand, they fought off the city health authorities...
...each parent the state's attorney put only one question: "Will you now agree to a transfusion?" Both refused. Darrell Labrenz' position, as he had explained it to Bundesen: "The sanctity of the blood is a thing we cannot tamper with. Everybody knows that blood is the life force and we do not have control of life. Only Jehovah has that. Transfusion, which is a form of drinking or eating blood, is forbidden to us who are Jehovah's Witnesses...
Judge Dunne was more impressed by the medical evidence. He promptly ordered Cheryl Labrenz put under the guardianship of a court official (because of the parents' technical neglect). The guardian at once authorized transfusions. The apparatus had been set up in advance at Michael Reese Hospital. Not a minute was wasted in giving Baby Cheryl 60 ccs of blood. Within 48 hours, her red blood cells seemed to be winning the battle, and the doctors were confident that her life had been saved...
...whole week Darrell and Rhoda Labrenz had rejected the appeals of their own obstetrician, Dr. William Wieand, and city health authorities, to allow a transfusion. In that week the brain might have been seriously damaged. Said Dr. Wieand: "We won't be able to tell a thing about that for eight or nine months." Darrell Labrenz, stubbornly opposed to all that had been done for Cheryl, said: "Those who forced the issue are the ones who are responsible for sinning." Said Rhoda Labrenz simply: "Of course I want my baby to live. And I pray that she does...