JW mentioned on Law and Order

wonderwoman77

I was watching Law and Order SVU and they were trying to catch this guy on murder and rape, but they needed his DNA. When they went to swab his inner check, he said he could not do that because he was a JW. I think the show got it wrong, I never remember being told as a JW that I could not give up DNA samples, anyone know?

singsongboi

dna sampling has only become a common practise, comparatively recently...

and i have been out for more than 13 years...

but, i cannot see why it would be an issue, anymore than giving a urine sample to a DR for diabetes testing....

somebody involved in the case has got it wrong...!!!

quite possibly, the guyn was guilty and was trying to delay the inevitable!!!

or else he was just ignorant.. which would be just as possible!!!!

dungbeetle

ah guys..this is a fictional show!! Perhaps they were exagerating to make a point...?

There was a case where a man claimed to be a JW and wouldn't give blood samples willingly. In southern Los Angeles. Trust me, they got their blood and I believe he was convicted.

DazedAndConfused

I saw that show a while back and the only thing I could get out of it was that "if" a person says something is against their religion (whether they name the religion or not) it is illegal for the person trying to accumulate DNA to actually get it. From what I got out of it is... if I said I was a part of ANY recognised religion... I could basically get away with murder. Kind of a good analogy huh?... Claim to be of a religion and get away with murder. Kind of like getting away with murder when children, who have no say, die because of the blood issue.

Pete2

I saw the show last night. The suspect didn't want to give a swab sample -- and by law he didn't have to. He was obviously being glib when saying he couldn't because he was a Jehovah's Witness. If he was a JW -- the guy probably had his congregational privileges restricted since the guy proved to have a long history of murder and rape. Just my observation.

Pete

Elsewhere

Freedom of religion extends to the individual level, not just the organizational level... a person can believe or not believe what ever he wants, label it as "religion", and then have full constitutional protection.

"As every one knows, there are mistakes in the Bible" - The Watchtower, April 15, 1928, p. 126
Believe in yourself, not mythology.
<x ><

wonderwoman77

DUH...I know it is fictional dungbeatle, the question was just if anyone knew if JW had banned giving dna samples.

And I know the guy was just being a jerk saying he was a JW. that was not the point of the thread...jeez

plmkrzy

I've never heard of such a thing. I'm sure it would have been in a watch tower though if there was a ban on it.
dna samples have nothing to do with anything except indenity. If they banned dna samples they would have to ban cutting your toe nails too.

No matter how thin you slice it there are always two sides

Hyghlandyr

No there is no ban on giving DNA samples...

There was a similar case to the one that was in L.A. in Columbus Ohio. How factual it is I dont know, but a rapist claimed he could not give a blood sample because he was one of Jehovahs Witnesses. Aparently after the story aired on the local news, they, and the police were hit with many phone calls from witnesses clarifying that was not a witness doctrine.

When my wife had her surgery however, a few of the witnesses came in and waited with me in the waiting room. We got to talking about what I do for a living, pharmacuetical research, I test drugs for a living. Well we discussed many of the procedures and tests that are done including the blood draws. Two of the women wanted to know what happened to the blood after it was tested, and was it properly disposed of, rather than used in transfusions. Guffaw! I almost choked it was so funny. HELLO! Today I would say, oh yeah, its used in transfusions, and I gave a bag of it to the doctors and told them, I know she said no blood, but here ya go. But I was still a believer back then. A couple days later I hit jehovahswitnesses.com and within a few hours I was a full fledged ex.

Someone said:

Freedom of religion extends to the individual level, not just the organizational level... a person can believe or not believe what ever he wants, label it as "religion", and then have full constitutional protection.

I think there have been several court decrees about this. That individual religion, while theoretically valid, usually does not stand up to whatever tests various courts intend for what qualifies as religion. Wiccans often still have a very difficult time in some courts since there is no central authority, doctrine, or belief system. A lot depends on the whim of the individual judge, but then that is the way it always has been. Otherwise the laws could just be programmed into some software, and the specifics of each case punched in, and a judgement rendered...

Law and Order rocks, I've liked the series from the beginning, and I like all the new series branched from it.

JW mentioned on Law and Order

Share this