UK Newspaper articles. Young JW death re 'no blood'
by ThomasCovenant 38 Replies latest watchtower medical
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ThomasCovenant
How do you link it?
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besty
how long before the leaders become accountable?
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Heartofaboy
Never mind some JW today will pray for a new dress & a pair of shoes & good ole Jah will 'bless' them with their hearts desire, while ignoring the cries of the truly desperate.
Truly tragic.
Hoab
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quietlyleaving
very sad.
especially as a JW hospital liason officer may have been able to negotiate a compromise which may have saved the boy's life. JWs really need to make their rules concerning blood understandable so that there may be more hope of survival in such emergency cases where time is crucial.
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MidwichCuckoo
The article doesn't mention if the lad was Baptised..? Let's see Paul Gillies claim that 'we only Baptise as adults' as he did (on UK morning TV programme) after Emma Gough died refusing blood.
Poor lad, such a waste
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dozy
Very sad. I didn't recognise the JW representative on ITV news yesterday - anybody know him? The JW rumour mill has already started , saying that he would have died if he had been given a transfusion anyway (why can they never accept that people do die sometimes in these circumstances). I would imagine that he would have been baptised as it would have been proof that he was an active JW for legal purposes - if not , then he would have been made a ward of court as an unbaptised minor. Imagine the trauma for the hospital staff & legal personnel in these circumstances (not to mention the family.)
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cognizant dissident
I wrote a university essay on why Jehovah's Witness minors should not be allowed to be declared "mature minors" who are competent to make their own medical decisions for themselves.
A few of my points were:
They do not have informed medical consent, because they are misinformed and misled by their church teachings as to the dangers and benefits of blood and taught to distrust the medical and legal establishment that provides them with any other information contradicting their church teachings.
Their decisions are made in a climate of psychological fear, and I outlined the severe psychological consequences of shunning if one takes a blood transfusion, especially to a child raised in the faith, who has no other family, friends, social network or means of support.
68% of people born into the Jehovah's Witnesses eventually leave, so the chances are this youth would have left also.
Now he is dead of course, so we will never know. I got an A+ on my essay. My instructor's only criticism was that it was a bit like shooting fish in a barrel because everyone knows what a lunatic fringe group JW's are. He said that the law protects the JW youths already. On that part he was mistaken. Since he made that statement, two JW teenagers have been in the news and died because medical practitioners allowed them to make the decision as mature minors. One in the US and now this one in UK. There may be many more, this is just the two I'm aware of.
I'm all for medical autonomy, even for minors, but the court precedents are to do with minors being able to seek and choose medical treatment for themselves, (birth control, abortion, etc) without their parents permission, not refuse it. Or, they are to do with being able to choose between very risky treatments without much chance of success in the case of terminal illnesses. There is also a huge issue of informed consent and actually having the correct information about the risks and benefits medically of the different treatments.
The cases of JW minors refusing blood transfusions, do not meet any of these legal tests. In cases like these, I'm in favor of them being made wards of the court and forcibly transfused. Save the life first and sort out the legalities later, I say.
Whether the child would have died anyway is irrelevant to the argument. It is quite possibly true but the issue is that they are fighting for the legal right to take away the child's only chance of survival, no matter how slim. There ought to be a law! Oh wait there is! I think the medical personnel need to pursue it more aggressively in relation to minors.
Cog
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Gayle
I am more than sad! If it is an adult JW that dies due to no blood transfusion, it is sad. But when it is a young child, under 18, then I am mad!! It is just sickening. I am sad for the parents now. But will they be praised by the organization for their stand and that will help them get over it? Then, will the parents get back up on the JW 'band wagon' and preach that is what all parents should do also? Are the parents worthy of respect? I know they are victims of a cult but they also have accountability.
It is so shameful. I know no one wants to talk about it now out of 'respect' for the family's pain. This is not a respectful thing, though. Normal parents try 'everything,' everything to their own death, everything humanly possible, to try to have their child live. The WTBTS warps normal. Most of the GB never have had children, don't have clue.
I know many don't think this issue should go public 'out of respect.' But the public need to know this unrespectful, dangerous issue of JWs and not just tucked away quietly, because of religion. I hope this wakes up some.