Children Die — Watchtower Spin

by Marvin Shilmer 7 Replies latest jw friends

  • Marvin Shilmer
    Marvin Shilmer

    Children Die — Watchtower Spin

    Today I loaded a new article onto my blog underscoring the spin Watchtower attempts to employ when addressing medical professionals about children suffering premature death as a result of abiding by Watchtower’s blood doctrine.

    The article shows a statement from a high-ranking Watchtower authority. It Jehovah’s Witnesses accept what this man has to say, all of them will cease following the religious position taught and enforced by Watchtower.

    The article is Children Die — Watchtower Spin and it is available at: http://marvinshilmer.blogspot.com/2011/02/children-die-watchtower-spin.html

    Marvin Shilmer

    marvinshilmer.blogspot.com

  • wobble
    wobble

    Thanks Marvin for your good work in this area, we need to keep chipping away at the WT's murderous and un-scriptural blood doctrine.

    Please continue to keep us informed of your finds, we would not spot them without your eagle eye !

  • tresdecu
    tresdecu

    Marvin - I enjoy your blog, well put together! I am just curious of the context of the second image. Thanks

  • Marvin Shilmer
    Marvin Shilmer

    tresdecu,

    Rosam’s article was in response to an earlier article authored by Anita Catlin, then Professor of Nursing at Napa Valley College.

    Catlin’s article presented the dilemma faced by clinicians of a 6-year-old in sickle cell crisis whose parents refused to allow transfusion. Eventually the child’s life was saved by doctors overriding the parents’ wishes and transfusing the child against their will. It was an ugly scene. The father had to be taken away in handcuffs and was detained in the local jail to keep him from interfering. The mother was allowed to remain on the floor, but not in the company of her child. As you can imagine, the child was terribly frightened through the whole ordeal.

    Of Rosam’s reply, my blog shows the particular statement by him that is highlighted for the short article. Here is the whole paragraph:

    “We, too, like the author, would never recommend that the child be allowed to die. What we would ask is that the doctor do everything he can to save the life of the child without using a blood transfusion. The situation with Jehovah's Witnesses is not one of parents refusing all medical treatment, but simply differing with the doctor as to what kind of treatment is preferred. We often see both child and adult cases described in such a way as to indicate that when blood transfusion was administered the life was saved. One has to ask what the eventual outcome of these "saved" lives will be? What will be the quality of life in the years ahead? Could this child suffer from the potential adverse effects of blood transfusion, such as iron overload, hepatitis or other viral transmission? Thus, we cannot agree with the author that giving blood "meets every goal of medicine." Is blood the only thing that saves lives? In the majority of our cases there are new medical modalities that "save lives," such as erythropoietin, desmopressin, hemodilution, or the use of a blood salvage device. If one is going honestly to say that withholding blood constitutes doing harm, then one would have also to honestly admit that giving blood can also do harm. If there is a risk both ways, who should decide for the child which risk is to be taken?”—(Rosam, E., Reply to Anita Catlin, HEC Forum, 1996, Vol. 8 No. 4, p. 208)

    Unfortunately for Rosam, when transfusion of some Watchtower forbidden blood product is the only viable means of preventing death and is available, then to apply some other treatment is no more than palliative. Such an alternative might make a patient feel better, and it might placate the Witness relatives, but it will not prevent premature mortality. In such an instance to insist on the palliative rather than the prevention is to “recommend that the child be allowed to die”.

    Sometimes the only viable means of preventing the death of a child is to administer some product rendered from blood that is forbidden under Watchtower’s blood taboo.

    Marvin Shilmer

    marvinshilmer.blogspot.com

  • yourmomma
    yourmomma

    Is this Rosam clown who wrote this suggesting that it would be better to be dead than to live with hepatitis? He is also a liar when he tries to suggest that the "risk is both ways".

  • Marvin Shilmer
    Marvin Shilmer

    Yourmomma writes:

    “Is this Rosam clown who wrote this suggesting that it would be better to be dead than to live with hepatitis? He is also a liar when he tries to suggest that the "risk is both ways".”

    Rosam is right that risk is present with and without blood transfusion. The same can be said of any and every medical therapy known to man.

    Rosam asks the question, “If there is a risk both ways, who should decide for the child which risk is to be taken?” He then goes on to address that question as though there are viable alternatives for all patient presentations when that is not the case. That is to say, sometimes accepting transfusion of a blood product forbidden by Watchtower is the only viable therapy to prevent death. In that case the risk-to-benefit is moot because the first goal of medicine is to save life by preventing death.

    Marvin Shilmer

  • JW GoneBad
    JW GoneBad

    The society should stick to reading the Bible and encouraging others to read the Bible because it is a good book. They should leave medicine and the practice of medicine to the professionals.

    Good info Marvin.

  • Marvin Shilmer
    Marvin Shilmer

    JW GoneBad writes:

    “The society should stick to reading the Bible and encouraging others to read the Bible because it is a good book. They should leave medicine and the practice of medicine to the professionals.”

    If only it would

    If only it would

    We’d enjoy Christian freedom

    And live as folks should

    If they’d let it be

    If they’d let it be

    We’d have Christian unity

    Instead of dead men’s greed

    Why won’t they

    Why won’t they

    It is nothing new

    Fear-mongers want us to obey

    What can we do

    What can we do

    Stand and be counted

    And give them the shoe

    Marvin Shilmer

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