I thought it was the program Life in the ER. When it featured a elderly couple from san antonio that died because of refusing fractions.
Maybe I have it wrong.
What was the spark that caused the blood fractions switch ?
by 5go 9 Replies latest watchtower medical
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sir82
The easing up on "acceptable" blood fractions began in the 1970's. Every few years, another article would come out nameing a few more "acceptable" ones, until finally they just threw up their hands and said "all fractions" in the year 2000.
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compound complex
Please see new threads re: blood by A Paduan and Compound-Complex for more info.
CoCo
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garybuss
The plan is to dissect an icon. Now the plan is to promote the idea that the whole is a sin and the part is not. That's a bridge doctrine. It's all gonna go away.
The Society is systematically dropping the shunning sanction on blood medical treatment. Shunning members for medical treatment is a huge liability. They made the acknowledgement when they made vaccinations an individual medical treatment choice and not a religious issue.
They are doing the same thing with blood medical treatment. I expect when the last of the 3 remaining Governing Body members (to have power) die, the practice of threatening shunning for blood medical treatment will change. -
frozen one
I'm real cynical on this subject. I think, and there is no way I can prove it, that whenever some high ranking figure in the society is facing a medical problem with a forbidden treatment the powers that be get together and remove the restrictions.
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TD
Just another opinion here:
It was becoming increasingly apparent in the mid to late 90's that Witness patients did not truly have unfettered autonomy in choosing treatments involving blood. Not only was the "Blood issue" too hard for the average JW to understand, but on more than one occasion, the WTB&TS via it's HLC's had made rulings on individual cases regarding the acceptability of cutting edge treatments. (e.g. Peripheral stem-cell autografting)
Additionally, a number of hemoglobin based blood substitutes were just reaching the point of actual clinical trials and no Witness anywhere had a clue if these would be acceptable or not. (At the time, they actually would have been forbidden although this never appeared in Witness literature.)
The standard CYA fallback line of the JW parent organization has always been that the individual JW understands and agrees to the blood policy at the time of their baptism. Articles written by Dr. Muramota, "Lee Elder" and others appearing in major medical journals exposed this line for the thin tissue of lies that it was.
I believe it was this pressue that resulted in the overhaul of the blood policy in 2000.
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compound complex
What surprised me was the pressure that FWF faced over various aspects of the blood ban, most noteworthy that of acceptable treatment for hemophiliacs. Many contacted the Society by phone initially re: how to proceed past the "permitted" one treatment. When, through opposition and pressure [by whom specifically?] FWF relented, there were few follow-up contact telephone numbers available to apprise original callers of updated, life-saving treatment.
www.jehovahs-witness.com/12/126825/1.ashx
Compound-Complex
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Nellie
It's my understanding that this really began because the society wanted to be recognized as a religion in Europe and the European Council told them that they could never become a recognized religion because they didn't show sanctity of life. They preferred that members accept death over a blood transfusion. They then agreed not to remove a member over blood. This allowed them to get the recognition that they wanted. For a while after they used the old bait and switch saying they weren't disfellowshipping anyone for accepting blood, but that those who accept blood have shown from their actions that they are disassociating themselves from the org. Now they've loosened the rope a little more (probably afraid they'd get called on the double cross).
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Abandoned
Liability.
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Bonnie_Clyde
Back in the 70's a good witness friend of mine told me that her Bethelite brother-in-law told her that the Governing Body members were having trouble getting plane tickets to travel to foreign countries because the required vaccinations contained blood fractions.
I've suspected that this could have been a factor. If it is something that would benefit the GB, then they will make a change.