New light on blood?

by Mickey mouse 57 Replies latest watchtower medical

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  TD

  Sir82:

  True, but only very specific ones.

  With the exception of the stupidity that occured with cryoprecipitate in the mid to late 70's, which fractions available at the time were not allowed?

  For decades, JWs would comb through old bound volumes to see if the particular fraction they needed was listed by name in a QFR. If not, perhaps the boldest of them would call the Society to ask about the fraction by name.

  Yes, I have some actual letters and responses from that era. I don't have many, because they're not easy to come by, but I have yet to see one where the question that was raised had not already been addressed on multiple occasions.

  The problems then are the same as the problems now.

  1. JW's as a group don't understand the very simplest of medical terms.

  2. JW's as a group not only can't think for themselves, they wouldn't want to even if they could.

  The change in 2000 which was intended to remedy this problem has only made things worse.

  The change in 2000 was significant - they allowed any and all fractions, so long as it was not one of the "big 4" fractions they specifically named.

  It theory it was significant. In actual practice, it allowed a handful of obscure preparations that were actually far more "Minor" than what was already allowed. This included Platelet gell and Platelet and Leukocyte cytokines. (Platelet factor 4, Interleukins and Interferons (The latter two are both signaling molecules for the immune system))

  The one single change in 2000 that has the potential to become significant for JW's as a community was the allowance of hemoglobin based blood substitutes, but these are currently hung up in clinical trials.

  JWoods:

  There was also the question (in my mind, never really resolved) if certain vaccines involved the use of blood. I think they pretty much just dropped any of the logical objections on this.

  All post-exposure vaccines contain both gamma globulin and albumin. A fair amount of immunizations also contain very small amounts of albumin including the standard battery that children must have before attending public school (e.g. MMR, DPT, Varicella etc.)

  The acceptance of gamma globulin and albumin has been a matter of conscience for JW's for a long, long time now.
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  JWoods

  All post-exposure vaccines contain both gamma globulin and albumin. A fair amount of immunizations also contain very small amounts of albumin including the standard battery that children must have before attending public school (e.g. MMR, DPT, Varicella etc.)

  The acceptance of gamma globulin and albumin has been a matter of conscience for JW's for a long, long time now.

  Interesting. I would guess that there are very, very few active JWs who know it is a "matter of conscience" - they just think of it like a penicillin shot or such. For sure, I did not see any coverage of this in the literature that I can recall.
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  skeeter1
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  skeeter1
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  Titus

  Skeeter, according to your picture, you could never be a Jehovah's Witness.
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  JWoods

  Skeeter, according to your picture, you could never be a Jehovah's Witness.

  He only sucked plant nectar before the flood.
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  skeeter1

  My avatar is pretty cool, huh? Blood consumes me, and I consume it! LOL. Anyway, I tried posting something yesterday and could never get it to work. I can see where they would want to change blood. -Bad press from all the blood deaths -blood fractions causing fractions within the membership who question it -Russia ousting the JWs, largely due to blood & dissassociation -and two words...Lawrence Hughes lawsuit putting Bethel's attorneys to sweat bullets. Anyway, I look forward to this Summer. But, I warn Bethel that if they have changed the blood doctrine and wait to announce it...there are going to be people who die between now and this Summer. THere is something in the law called, "negligent manslaughter" and company executives have been held to criminal charges when they hid the truth from consumers. Just google "Volvo" and "Negligent Manslaughter". So, the best thing for Bethel to do to stay out of jail (and the HLC, too) is to have an open, honest, and quick dissemination of any changed blood policy. Especially, if the policy is being changed to "by personal decision." Skeeter
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  JWoods

  But, I warn Bethel that if they have changed the blood doctrine and wait to announce it...there are going to be people who die between now and this Summer.

  Even if they made it a matter of "conscience", do we really think current JWs would actually take a blood transfusion?

  In the highly unlikely event that this does come about, wouldn't it more probably be like the conscientous objecter thing back in the vietnam era draft situation - technically a "matter of personal conscience", (to avoid legal trouble for the society), but in actuality if you did take a CO position voluntarily, you would be disassociated for it.