organs?

by Cyre 5 Replies latest watchtower medical

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  Cyre

  If Witnesses don't believe in blood transfusion, then does that mean they dont believe in organ transplantation, too?

  Diana
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  refiners fire

  I can tell you that in the 60s,70s they said that anyone that recieved a heart transplant would take on the personality of the donor. I'll post some excerpts from thae article soon as I find it. I think their position on organs is now the opposite.It was last time i looked. Its one of those things they seem to change position on from time to time.
• 

  refiners fire

  March 1 WATCHTOWER. 1971. "How is your heart"?

  ...."11

  Medical World News (May 23, 1969), in an article entitled "What Does a New Heart Do to the Mind?" reported the following: "At Stanford University Medical Center last year, a 45-year-old man received a new heart from a 20-year-old donor and soon announced to all his friends that he was celebrating his twentieth birthday. Another recipient resolved to live up to the sterling reputation of the prominent local citizen who was the donor. And a third man expressed great fear of feminization upon receiving a woman's heart, though he was somewhat mollified when he learned that women live longer than men. According to psychiatrist Donald T. Lunde, a consultant to surgeon Norman Shumway's transplant team at Stanford, these patients represent someofthelessseverementalaberrations [italics ours] observed in the Shumway series of 13 transplants over the last 16 months." The article continues: "Though five patients in the series had survived as of early this month, and four of them were home leading fairly normal lives, three of the nonsurvivors became psychotic before they died last year. And two others have become psychotic this year."...

  I think at the time they held the position that God didnt like heart transplants.

  ..."14

  It is interesting to observe, too, that the heart is one of the first organs of the body to be affected by emotional circumstances. Our hearts leap with joy; sudden danger brings a violent racing of the heart. Fear causes trepidation of the heart. Grief and sorrow bring it pain. From the heights of joy and pleasure to the depths of despair and pain, the sensations of the heart are felt throughout the body. Appropriately we have many words and phrases that incorporate the word "heart." To name a few: Take to heart, fainthearted, tenderhearted, hardhearted, with all your heart, heartrending, set your heart on, heartening, change of heart, and so forth."....

  ...."16

  The fleshly heart, in contrast, is intimately associated with affection and motivation. The psalmist wrote: "In my heart I have treasured up your saying, in order that I may not sin against you." (Ps. 119:11) We can see that the heart is what motivates one's mind and course of action".....

  To me they seemed to be of the opinion that feelings originate in the heart, not the brain. I dont know what the medical establishments position would be on that one.

  Edited by - refiners fire on 2 November 2002 19:20:4
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  Mackin

  Refiners,

  I remember the Convention when this came out. They had a cardboard mockup of a human figure on the stage and the head would light up when the person was "reasoning with their mind" and the chest area would light up when they were "reasoning with their heart". At that time the view was that the physical heart organ was the "seat of motivation".

  There was a very subtle change at the time that Insight on the Scriptures was released in which the viewpoint was changed to say that the "seat of motivation" was the "figurative heart" not the "literal heart". I rather suspect that they began to realise that the bullshit they had published in the '70's about a person taking on a different personality after an organ transplant was just that - bullshit.

  This change was not publicised much however and there are still plenty of 'dubs who beleive you will turn into Hannibal Lecter if you have a heart transplant.

  Mackin.
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  Prisca

  So now they say it's "up to a person's conscience" whether or not you accept an organ translant, or chose to donate one.

  I had this discussion with an elder about 5 years ago, when my drivers licence was up for renewal and it had the option there of stating if you were willing to donate body organs in the event of your death. I thought donating your organs was/is a good idea, so I wanted to tick the box, but was unsure what the WTS stated now. I knew in the past they had regarded it as cannibalism. The elder basically explained that it was now a matter of conscience.

  I agree that it is a matter of conscience, although it's sad to note that the WTS has never apologised to those who lost their lives as a result of following the WTS policies.

  Yet, even though the medical profession regard blood as the largest human organ in the body, the JWs still prohibit blood transfusions/donations.
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  Kingpawn

  To me, if I die and take all my organs with me to the coffin or the crematorium, who benefits? But if I can give sight to someone who had none, or even buy someone time with an organ of mine until a better one came along, or my skin could be used for temporary grafts for a burn victim, I'm more than willing to give that up when I die.