Matter of Dubreuil

Summary

The Florida Supreme Court quashed the lower court's order allowing a public hospital to transfuse blood into a competent Jehovah's Witness mother who refused on religious grounds, holding that no abandonment of her minor children was proven and therefore no compelling state interest existed to override her constitutional privacy and free‑exercise rights. The Court also ruled that a health‑care provider may not assert the State’s interests and that the burden of proving a compelling interest rests with the State itself.