The Religious Beliefs of Tort Victims: Religious Thin Skulls or Failures of Mitigation?

A Jehovah’s Witness suffers severe injuries in an automobile accident, and these injuries result from another person’s negligent driving. The victim refuses to accept standard medical treatment, which includes blood transfusions. Had she accepted standard treatment, the victim would have been returned to a near normal life. As a result of her decision, she now faces the prospect of life in a wheel-chair. Should the tortfeasor be held liable for the additional damages that result from the victim’s religious decision, or should the victim’s religious choice be treated as a failure of reasonable mitigation? I support the former option, arguing that the thin skull rule should be extended to include religious choices such as the refusal of blood transfusions. Our constitutional commitments to religious freedom and equality require us to treat these choices as reasonable ones, and this supports the notion of religious thin skulls. The argument provided here fits neatly with the structure of tort, and with the major Canadian precedents regarding the evaluation of victim behaviour.