OTTAWA (RNS) The Supreme Court of Canada has declined to hear a wrongful death lawsuit brought by a man whose daughter was a Jehovah’s Witness.

Lawrence Hughes filed the action in 2004 against the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Canada and others alleging the Witnesses’ policy against blood transfusions caused the death of his daughter, Bethany Hughes, from acute myeloid leukemia in 2002. She was 17.

After she refused blood transfusions based on her religious beliefs, the province of Alberta took custody of the teen, in a move that triggered a debate on religious freedom versus human rights.

Bethany Hughes died less than six months after she underwent 38 forcible blood transfusions performed under sedation at a Calgary hospital.

Many Jehovah’s Witnesses shun blood transfusions and blood products based on their reading of biblical verses they believe prohibit the ingestion of blood.

Lawrence Hughes filed a $975,000 lawsuit against several parties, claiming the Watchtower Society, its lawyers and religious leaders deliberately misled his daughter by urging her to refuse transfusions to treat her cancer.

In 2006, an Alberta court dismissed the part of the claim against the Watchtower Society, saying the action attacked the church’s religious doctrines. The court said it could not rule on religious dogma. Alberta’s Court of Appeal later agreed the lawsuit against the church and its officials should not proceed.

As is its custom, Canada’s Supreme Court did not give reasons for denying Hughes’s leave to appeal.

Lawyer David Gnam, who represents the Watchtower Society and was named in the lawsuit, called the ruling “a great relief.”

Gnam told Canadian Press there was no proof that interference by church officials had caused Bethany’s death. “In the end she did get the blood transfusions, against her wishes, and they weren’t effective,” he told CP.

Lawrence Hughes was shunned by the church for rejecting its teachings.