darkspliver: But also, I suppose, it was a strange rant/useage, as this is an example of the 'elders' and 'governing body' very much taking a back seat and letting the court/hospital take the lead, without any drama or f'ing and blinding.
Which is probably the best compromise and the reason why I wanted to flag this up with OrphanCrow.
The parent's made written representations regarding their wishes and did not attend the court, the hospital was happy to follow those wishes, with the priviso that they could adminster a blood transfusion, if needed. The judge agreed. End of case. I thought the brief write-up and comments of the Judge were interesting, which is again why I flagged it up for OrphanCrow.
It isn't that strange or odd if you take into consideration the decades of losing cases that the WT has faced whenever their child sacrifice practice gets challenged. For a bit of background on how the law has been handled in the case of minor children whose parents will let them die for a "god"...this is a good place to start:
http://jwdivorces.bravehost.com/bloode.html
The Watchtower has known since 1944 that child sacrifice will not hold up in court but that hasn't stopped them from continually challenging the Prince ruling:
Where Witness parents wish to refuse blood transfusions for their minor children, American law
generally does not permit them to do so if there is
no alternative course of acceptable medical treatment.
As the US Supreme Court observed in the
1944 case of Prince v. Massachusetts,
72 “Parents may
be free to become martyrs themselves. But it does
not follow that they are free, in identical circumstances,
to make martyrs of their children before
they have reached the age of full and legal discretion
when they can make that choice for themselves.”
Australia has a Blood Transfusion Act that has been in place since 1960 that will allow a minor child to be transfused (details at first link).
In some areas of the world, the legal standards are such that a case like happened in the UK doesn't even get filed - that child gets transfused regardless of whether the parents follow a barbaric religious practice of child sacrifice. And, many many cases go through the courts on a regular basis - they just don't make the news.
What the Watchtower has done - for reasons the reader can discern for themselves - is to ignore the law on minor children and continue to make the adherence to child sacrifice a measurement of adult JWs' spiritual standing.
The secular world has recognized the right of a minor child to have access to life saving measures. The Watchtower does not recognize that the child has rights - they have continually pushed for the right of the family to be a sealed unit. That has been their legal argument from Day One - both with blood and with child sex abuse.
A child, to the WTS, is property. To be used and abused as anyone sees fit. Including up for grabs to be used in the medical industry as tiny little guinea piggies.
As far as the profanity goes...it is only extreme profanity that is a problem here, from what I have been able to discern.
So...fuck the Watchtower Society and fuck all those parents who blindly lay their babies on the altar of the Blood God Jehovah. Fuck them all.
