Discovery channel's big JW show!

by Dan B 10 Replies latest jw friends

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  Dan B

  I just finished watching a show on Discovery Health channel called Blood-Cure or Killer. It was a history of blood transfusions, and where that area of medicine is heading in the future. The first mention of the JW's involved an interview with a bearded man (?) who was identified as a JW. He claimed that the reason the JWs don't accept blood is because a person's personality is in the blood and God doesn't want personalities mixed together. I don't know what the hell he was talking about. He made the JWs look like a bunch of morons. Further in the program they interviewed him again and he pointed to the "fact" that more and more people are getting diseases from blood transfusions than ever before. The show then proceeded to show how the blood supply is the safest it's ever been due to enhanced testing procedures, and how it's only going to get better.

  They also briefly interviewed a woman named Pamela who identified herself as a JW and stated that she refuses blood because Jehovah views it as sacred, so she does too. They then proceeded to show her open heart bloodless surgery. They really hyped bloodless surgery as a better way to go, for surgery, but not practical for accident victims. It seems that JW persistance in refusing blood has actually had some benefits which could help others. Personally, if I needed an operation, bloodless surgery would be a first choice, but definitely not worth risking my life over.

  The final conclusion of the show was that blood, whether cure or killer is necessary in medicine. I don't know where they found the guy with the beard to interview, but he sure didn't help out the JW cause!

  Dan
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  ashitaka

  Blood or no blood, if the doctor says I truly need it, I'm going to get it. Tried and true is the only method I use when it comes to my life.

  ashi
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  Dan B

  Hi Ashi,

  "Blood or no blood, if the doctor says I truly need it, I'm going to get it."

  That was pretty much the conclusion of the show. If you are dying from blood loss, it's not really that important at the time whether you may get sick from it down the road. They featured a guy from England who was hit by a truck while riding his bicycle. They had to pump gallons of blood into him, but they did keep him alive. Apparently he set the world record for the amount of blood required to save him.

  I do agree with you, if blood is necessary, than that's what must be done. Bloodless surgery is a nice option, but not necessarily practical.

  Dan

  Dan
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  Mazza

  Hi Dan, Great stuff!!! It's about time that JW's got a taste of their own medicine. How many times do WT officials stand before the media and misrepresent what they believe. Smarmy brothers sitting there with self satisfied looks telling the world things like "we don't split up families" and that everyone is "free"to choose whether to have blood or not. Lies by omision!!! So how absolutely delightful that this bearded guy was found and was given free reign to waffle away unchecked by reality. I can just hear all the dubs complaining about the media's lack of truthful reporting. Mmmmm! You made my day!!

  Marilyn
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  Skimmer

  Before the WTBTS permitted organ transplants, they repeatedly published the "fact" that receiving an organ also brought along some of the personality of the donor.

  Like most other WTBTS medical quackery, it had its roots in superstition of the time. In fact, this particular superstition showed up as part of a plot of the US television series _Mission: Impossible" which was produced from 1966 to 1973. In one of the episodes, the IMF (good guys) was able to convince an otherwise uncrackable bad guy that he had gotten a heart transplant from a priest. And so, the IMF was able to persuade the bad guy to give up secret information that would cause evil and perhaps cause his "new" heart to fail.
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  blondie

  Maybe he was thinking of these two news articles that the WTS saw fit to include in their magazines at the height of the 1967-1980 ban on transplants.

  September 1, 1975 Watchtower p 519
  Insight on the News ***
  Transplant Problems
  It has long been known that heart-transplant patients have a higher-than-average amount of postoperative psychiatric problems. But it seems that the same is true with regard to some other vital organ transplants, such as kidney transplants. U.C.L.A. psychiatry professor Dr. Pietro Castelnuovo-Tedesco is quoted as saying: “An outstanding finding following transplantation is the not infrequent occurrence of serious emotional disturbance.” One study of 292 kidney-transplant patients showed that nearly 20 percent experienced severe depression after the operation, a few even attempting suicide. By contrast, only about one out of every 1,500 general-surgery patients develops a severe emotional disturbance.

  A peculiar factor sometimes noted is a so-called ‘personality transplant.’ That is, the recipient in some cases has seemed to adopt certain personality factors of the person from whom the organ came.

  October 22, 1970 Awake page 29
  Watching the World ***
  Personality Change
  According to a report that appeared on United Press International of August 18, 1970, the daughter of Philip Blaiberg said that he had experienced a complete personality change after undergoing a heart-transplant operation. Blaiberg was one of the first to receive a transplanted heart. His daughter observed: “I don’t know if it was the drugs or just the transplant, but he was a different man.”
  One young promiscuous woman who received a kidney from her older, conservative, well-behaved sister, at first seemed very upset. Then she began imitating her sister in much of her conduct. Another patient claimed to receive a changed outlook on life after his kidney transplant. Following a transplant, one mild-tempered man became aggressive like the donor. The problem may be largely or wholly mental. But it is of interest, at least, that the Bible links the kidneys closely with human emotions.—Compare Jeremiah 17:10 and Revelation 2:23.
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  Stephanus

  He's merely regurgitating what he's read in the literature. A 1970s Awake tells the story of a "bad" girl who had a transfusion from her "good" sister, and then she started to become more responsible, like her sister! I'll find the article, if I can be bothered - it's on the CDROM.
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  blondie

  Stephanus, I think you are thinking about the news item from the WT magazine I quoted above:

  Quote:
  One young promiscuous woman who received a kidney from her older, conservative, well-behaved sister, at first seemed very upset. Then she began imitating her sister in much of her conduct.

  Back then a blood transfusion was seen as just another organ transplant.
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  hawkaw

  It seems that JW persistance in refusing blood has actually had some benefits which could help others.

  This is absolutely not true. What made "blood conservation therapy" go forward were the screening problems of the 1970s and 1980s and the lack of donated blood in the system. Also some treatments (such as certain colon cancers but not breast cancer) showed a higher rate of reoccurrence if one was given blood. Thus, some operations tried to perfect a "blood conservation technique".

  Blood conservation therapy actually involves blood transfusions. For example as you noted, your blood lossed during surgery is collected by a machine and returned to your body or using your own stored blood. Both are transfusions.

  I remember slaming a religious news reporter in Jacksonville over saying the witnesses came up and forced doctors to develop all of this new technology on their own. She admitted she was wrong in writing to me but never offered up an official apology in the paper.

  hawk
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  RunningMan

  Actually, the guy with the beard was right on with regard to
  the Society's statements. He was just a little late. Consider:

  The poisons that produce the impulse to commit suicide, murder,
  or steal are in the blood."..."Moral insanity, sexual perversions,
  repression, inferiority complexes, petty crimes - these often follow
  in the wake of blood transfusions."
  - The Watchtower 09/15/1961 p. 564

  It's about time their stupidity came back to bite them in the ass.