Thanks for the news update and I am glad you had a good time.I do appreciate the reply to my questions and the thoughtful and polite presentation. I took a quick look at the web site you linked in and read the overview on the 1999 report. Like many reports you can draw on both the positive and the negative aspects. What is certainly true is that mankind is a global community and what happens in one region affects another, environmentally, politically and economically. I'll read further during the week when I have more time.
With regard to your comments on the subject of changes in the Watchtower organization, I disagree that the reality of the situation has not greatly changed. There was a fundamental change in the Watchtower's view of acceptable "fractions" and I wonder how carefully you read article. It stated,
"...when it comes to fractions of any of the primary components, each Christian, after careful and prayerful meditation, must conscientiously decide for himself." (Watchtower June 15, 2000 page 31, emphasis mine)
Previously in Watchtower articles all fractions of plasma have been OK'd including Albumin, immunoglobins, fibrinogen and clotting factors. This new change allows Jehovah's Witnesses to choose medical treatment that includes the use hemoglobin derived from red blood cells. The product Hemopure is already available and approved by HLC members for use on Witnesses if they wish. This is a major change and one of great benefit.
There was also a widely reported (and mis-reported too) change in the Watchtower Society's attitude to dissenting members who choose to take prohibited blood components. A press release was issued by the Society that was posted on their Public Affairs web site for a few days. Later a letter dated June 16, 2000 was sent to all HLC members explaining what the change was. I understand that Circuit Overseers briefed elders on the change but nothing has been officially printed to explain these changes to the ordinary congregation members. Do you know what I am talking about?
You also said: My experience is that JWs and blood is very much a non-issue and the many cases of people certain to die who have gone to make miraculous recoveries certainly bears this out.
That maybe true but you don't perform surgery every day and "many" is a relative term. Can you imagine how many Witness patients have major surgery or need ER treatment out of a million active members plus family each day in the US alone? In cases of minors it becomes a non-issue because doctors often threaten a court order at which point the HLC member walks away. That is my experience!
And: Extensive use of blood components in the treatment of haemophilia resulted in many patients acquiring the HIV virus. In UK, there is great concern surrounding new variant CJD which has been passed to humans from so-called mad cows and has the potential to be passed on via transfusions.
True, all tissue transplant carries risk and blood especially so. However, the risk factor increases dramatically for fractions requiring extraction from 100's if not 1000's of units of blood. Your argument is void because the Watchtower Society allows the use of these high-risk fractions. Many Hemophiliac Witnesses contracted HIV in the mid 80's whilst having approval to take Factor VIII from human donated blood. Also, you know that the Watchtower Society's prohibition on blood is based on Biblical interpretation, it is not a health reason.
Also: As medical science advances, many moral issues are raised that people, not just JWs, have difficulty in getting to grips with. For example, should human cloning be used to produced 'spare parts'?
I totally agree. We face issues not specifically mentioned in the Bible that religious faith has to deal with and act as a moral and ethical guide. Do you see that the Watchtower Society is having difficulty getting to grips with the "abstain from blood" tenet? To me it seems that Jehovah's Witnesses do not "abstain from blood" and the Watchtower Society is struggling to defend the medical uses of a complex tissue based on Jewish dietary and animal slaughter law. I think this shows the struggle, the need to resort to contrived language:
They reason that his law to Israel required that blood removed from a creature be ‘poured out on the ground.’ (Deuteronomy 12: 22-24) (Watchtower June 15, 2000 page 30, emphasis mine)
You never answered my question about the inconsistency of the Watchtower's view that platelets are a major component while albumin is a fraction when there is far more albumin than platelets by volume in blood. Again, the Watchtower Society struggles to make a medical or Biblical justification for such categories.
This is an extremely important subject. The decisions we make either for ourselves or our children can take on a life or death importance. Our choices may have profound effects or affect our consciences for the rest of our lives. My experience as an elder in the congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses and since in talking to professed Witnesses is that the vast majority of Witnesses do not know their own published beliefs, cannot defend it in a logical and scriptural way and do not know what options are available to them with approval of the Watchtower Society.
The BMJ article produced some considered and interesting feedback. There are some interesting points made by one elder and by another Witness.
The link is: http://bmj.com/cgi/eletters/322/7277/37#EL12
For details on the work being done to promote a change in the Watchtower's view on blood see this site:
http://www.ajwrb.org/
Let me know your thoughts on these links.
Tomorrow I am off to Toronto for 2 days....(family stuff)
Best wishes to you all.
Love,
Thirdson
