Was it really put up to help doctors and patients deal with the blood issue or to talk more jws in to taking fractions components and hemopure?
what year was the blood liason commitee started and was it really put into place to help get ones to take blood, fractions and hemopure?
by Crazyguy 16 Replies latest watchtower medical
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zeb
no available to me.
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Apognophos
Hmm, I thought someone would come along by now with the answer. All I can say is that I thought the HLC predated the allowance of fractions, so its purpose would indeed have been to encourage doctors (and JWs) to avoid the use of blood when operating on Witnesses.
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blondie
*** km 11/90 p. 3 Are You Ready to Face a Faith-Challenging Medical Situation? ***
HOSPITAL INFORMATION SERVICES AND HOSPITAL LIAISON COMMITTEES
4 To assist those who need help when faced with a blood transfusion problem, the Society has set up Hospital Information Services at Brooklyn. It has also established 100 Hospital Liaison Committees in major U.S. cities. These committees are made up of more than 600 elders specially trained for this work.
5 Hospital Information Services is able to do research in more than 3,600 medical journals worldwide to locate information on the availability and effectiveness of many forms of bloodless surgery and treatment. It then supplies Hospital Liaison Committees, health care centers, and some doctors with information on these medical advances. (Sometimes Hospital Information Services has sent out medical articles that show what can be done without blood and successfully defused an ongoing confrontation at a hospital.) It keeps the committees posted on favorable court decisions that will assist judges in looking at our cases with added insight. It also maintains records on over 7,000 cooperative physicians so that the committees have up-to-date files to use when blood transfusion problems arise.
6 Hospital Information Services also supervises the training and work of the Hospital Liaison Committees. In the cities where they are located, Hospital Liaison Committees regularly make informative presentations to hospital staffs to improve relations with them. They also poll these staffs to find any additional doctors who will treat us without using blood. These brothers stand ready to help you, but there are crucial advance steps you must take to lay the groundwork for them to do that most effectively.
*** km 11/90 p. 4 par. 17 Are You Ready to Face a Faith-Challenging Medical Situation? ***
17 To all of these, you must make clear your nonnegotiable stand: NO BLOOD. Ask for alternative nonblood medical management of your case. Mention any known alternatives to blood for your situation. If the medical team feels these are not useful in your case, ask them to research other possibilities in the medical literature. Assure them you can get them some information if they wish by your asking your elders to contact the nearest Hospital Liaison Committee.
*** km 11/90 p. 5 Are You Ready to Face a Faith-Challenging Medical Situation? ***
VALUABLE HELP IN A TIME OF NEED
23 Note the following procedure for obtaining needed help: (1) As soon as you or a loved one faces either elective or emergency surgery where there is a confrontation because the hospital wants to use blood; or (2) if your medical situation or that of a loved one deteriorates seriously; or (3) if in the case of a child (or an adult), the doctor, a nurse, or an administrator says they are going to get a court order, then:
24 CALL YOUR LOCAL ELDERS if you have not already done so. (Indeed, because of our position on blood, it is the course of wisdom to alert our elders anytime we have to go to a health care facility.) Next, if it is deemed necessary, THE ELDERS WILL CALL THE NEAREST HOSPITAL LIAISON COMMITTEE. If you wish, some Hospital Liaison Committee members may come to the hospital at this time to help you.—Isa. 32:1, 2.
25 These Hospital Liaison Committee elders know who the cooperative doctors are in your area and can get you in touch with them and start to line up other doctors or health care centers to assist. If none are available locally, the elders will check with the next nearest committee. And if that is not successful, they will call Hospital Information Services in Brooklyn. They may also be able to arrange for consultation with a cooperative doctor who can explain to your present medical team what can be done without blood. Hospital Liaison Committee brothers have been trained to handle such situations.
26 Members of the Hospital Liaison Committees are also willing to help you or a relative talk to a doctor or an administrator, but you must request that help. Of course, these brothers cannot make decisions for you, but often they can assist you in considering the Society’s view of matters and alert you to your options medically and legally.
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Crazyguy
Thanks Blondie!!!
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Bobcat
Crazyguy:
I remember a situation in our hall (it was a few years back when I was an elder), an elderly sister went into the hospital because she was sick and her blood count was dropping. The HLC talked them into trying hemopure (I think that was what it was - it was made of bovine blood at the time) but the sister adamantly refused. As far as she was concerned it had blood in it so it was out of the question. My position with the sister (who I had been visiting at the hospital) was to support whatever decision she chose.
I remember an HLC brother calling me an expressing exasperation with the sister for being unwilling to take the stuff. Eventually another elder talked her into taking it.
The things that stood out for me at the time was the fact that the sister's conscientous stand meant nothing to these brothers. Supposedly these kind of things fall into a grey area that we are to decide individually based on our conscience. (That is the company line at least.) But the HLC and some of the other elders (probably taking the same view as the HLC) saw it as their job to change this sister's viewpoint.
This was probably one of the early things that were starting my wake-up. (I see no problem with blood now, but at the time what stood out was the trampling on the sister's conscience.)
I remember someone else on here saying that their CO took the position that you should be agreeable to the allowable fractions unless you could come up with a very good reason not to. (This may not be the exact thread but it has the idea I was expressing.)
Bobcat
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Balaamsass2
My impression of it at the time. (I was an elder).#1. Was to ENFORCE the No Blood rule (Many JWs were secretly taking blood). #2 Reduce the death rate of JWs by pushing fractions etc. just my 2cents.
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Phizzy
It was without doubt the start of the WT/JW "reversing" out of the No Blood policy that brought the HLC's in to existence, with the motive of keeping the R&F happy, and avoiding huge Court action against the W.T.
As usual, it was all about the $$$.
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hamsterbait
It was just a means to ensure that wiltlesses DIE rather than take blood or any fraction of it. The role has morphed over time, so that now elduhs are coercing people into violating their own conscience, just to save the Witchtower Babble and Trash Society even more embarrassing exposure.\
HB