Path of Horns wrote: <The Society has not provided essential needed information, has supplied misleading information and has effectively prevented most Witnesses from reading balanced viewpoints on the matter to make an informed choice. This combined with the threat of automatic disassociation have created a generation of JWs that are willing to die believing a policy that it's creators are no longer sure of.> The WTS has been aggressively disseminating what amounts to bad medical advice for decades. Indoctrinating both parents and children, monitoring compliance, violating patient confidentiality and punishing any who chose to research, think and act on their own conscience - it is moral turpitude. Dungbeatle wrote: <Patients ALSO need to be informed of all their options, and that rarely is the case with Jehovah's Witnesses. I really doubt that Jehovah's Witnesses will refuse blood for their children if they were aware of the ENTIRETY of Watchtower's history on blood.> Education of both physicians and JWs is the key to ending this waste of precious human life. Many JWs, like Mary, have doubts about the policy but are in a very difficult position due to WT coercion and sanctions against doubters or those who ask the hard questions. Frequently, by the time they or their children show up in the emergency department - there is no time left to investigate and re-evaluate. Establishing informed consent in these situations is very difficult and we know that autonomy is simply not present in a significant percentage of cases. In elective surgery, physicians can do better, but this is the realm where the bloodless techniques work the best. It is the trauma cases and diseases of the blood and cancer where so many JWs are losing their lives. Frequently, no red cells or no platelets means chemotherapy must be stopped. We are making inroads into educating physicians - this morning a doctor emailed us requesting 25 copies of our brochure "Do Jehovah's Witnesses Really Abstain from Blood?" for his patients - so the word is getting out, but it is a slow and time consuming process, and the WTS has vastly superior resources to wage their PR campaign.
Edited by - Lee Elder on 21 June 2002 12:49:23