http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/16/132812/1.ashx MAJOR NEWS ARTICLE HERE
DannyHaszard
JoinedPosts by DannyHaszard
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WT BLOOD GUILT EXPOSED TO THE WORLD
by DannyHaszard inparents don't get a moral pass.
toronto star, canada - 3. even the discovery that their parents were devout jehovah's witnesses and is there any other kind of watchtower congregant?
raised only faint alarm ... rosie [email protected] the author.
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DO JW HAVE FREE CHOICE ON BLOOD TRANSFUSIONS
by DannyHaszard indo jehovah's witnesses have free choice on blood transfusions?do jehovah's witnesses have free choice on blood transfusions?.
vancouver sun (subscription), canada -.
a group of top academics as well as former jehovah's witnesses are raising stark warnings about the ethical ramifications of a vancouver court case delving ... the watchtower society, the legal and political body representing the six-million-member religion, portrays itself as a champion of religious freedom.
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DannyHaszard
Do Jehovah's Witnesses have free choice on blood transfusions? Do Jehovah's Witnesses have free choice on blood transfusions?
Vancouver Sun (subscription), Canada -
A group of top academics as well as former Jehovah's Witnesses are raising stark warnings about the ethical ramifications of a Vancouver court case delving ... The Watchtower Society, the legal and political body representing the six-million-member religion, portrays itself as a champion of religious freedom. Asked whether some Jehovah's Witnesses might feel coerced into refusing transfusions, Mark Ruge, Ontario-based spokesman for the Canadian Watchtower Society, said: "People can say whatever they want. I don't have the time to counter every accusation that's made." The group of legal and religion specialists claims the society fights mainly for freedom for the religious organization -- not for freedom of conscience for individual Witnesses. "We've all come together because of the number of people who are dying," says Juliet Guichon, who teaches health law and medical ethics at the University of Calgary. In a recent public statement, Guichon joined two religious scholars and two former Jehovah's Witnesses with legal expertise in saying that the actions of the Watchtower Society "suggest that these leaders value doctrinal adherence more than they do the lives of their members." The statement says senior medical officials confronted by Jehovah's Witnesses who refuse blood transfusions for themselves or dependents are often unable to make sound ethical decisions because they're limited by their own "ignorance of the Watchtower's authoritarian rule." In other words, the statement claims, medical staff often don't realize individual Witnesses in medical emergencies may be overwhelmed by their fear of the religious and social repercussions of accepting a transfusion.Monday » April 16 » 2007 Do Jehovah's Witnesses have free choice on blood transfusions? B.C. Supreme Court to hear sextuplets case today
Monday, April 16, 2007Douglas Todd Vancouver Sun
A group of top academics as well as former Jehovah's Witnesses are raising stark warnings about the ethical ramifications of a Vancouver court case delving into whether blood transfusions should have been forced this year on at least two of the surviving premature sextuplets of Witness parents. The critics of the Jehovah's Witnesses maintain the controversial case, which will be heard in B.C. Supreme Court today, reflects a pattern in which the religion fails to give adherents true freedom of choice about whether to accept life-saving transfusions. While some former Witnesses are promising to picket outside the Vancouver courthouse, a group of scholars and legal specialists have written a statement declaring the Jehovah's Witness religion often pressures followers not to follow their individual conscience, including while deciding whether to accept transfusions. The Watchtower Society, the legal and political body representing the six-million-member religion, portrays itself as a champion of religious freedom. Asked whether some Jehovah's Witnesses might feel coerced into refusing transfusions, Mark Ruge, Ontario-based spokesman for the Canadian Watchtower Society, said: "People can say whatever they want. I don't have the time to counter every accusation that's made." The group of legal and religion specialists claims the society fights mainly for freedom for the religious organization -- not for freedom of conscience for individual Witnesses. "We've all come together because of the number of people who are dying," says Juliet Guichon, who teaches health law and medical ethics at the University of Calgary. In a recent public statement, Guichon joined two religious scholars and two former Jehovah's Witnesses with legal expertise in saying that the actions of the Watchtower Society "suggest that these leaders value doctrinal adherence more than they do the lives of their members." The statement says senior medical officials confronted by Jehovah's Witnesses who refuse blood transfusions for themselves or dependents are often unable to make sound ethical decisions because they're limited by their own "ignorance of the Watchtower's authoritarian rule." In other words, the statement claims, medical staff often don't realize individual Witnesses in medical emergencies may be overwhelmed by their fear of the religious and social repercussions of accepting a transfusion. Today, lawyers for the B.C . government will face off against Watchtower Society lay lawyers over the province's decision in January to seize the four surviving sextuplets of Jehovah's Witnesses parents to force at least two to have blood transfusions. Jehovah's Witnesses are taught that transfusions are forbidden by the Bible and adherents who voluntarily submit to accepting another person's human blood will suffer eternally in hell, a scriptural interpretation firmly rejected by other Christians and Jews. Their belief is based in large part on the Book of Acts 15: 28-29, in which the Revised Standard Version of the Bible says early Christians were taught: "For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to impose on you no further burden than these essentials: That you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled, and from fornication." Lawyer Shane Brady, a Jehovah's Witness who works closely with the Watchtower Society, will argue in court that the government was wrong to do the emergency transfusions, in part because the Jehovah's Witness parents -- whose identities are protected by court order -- were denied a fair hearing before the apprehensions. In late December, Jehovah's Witness officials had written a letter cautioning a respected medical journal, Paediatrics and Child Health, against publishing an article by Guichon, the medical ethicist, and scholar Ian Mitchell, in which the authors questioned whether Jehovah's Witnesses always make truly "voluntary" decisions to reject transfusions. The article, which was published in December, 2006, said there is evidence some Jehovah's Witnesses who have to make life-and-death decisions about transfusions for themselves, their children or family members in comas feel pressured into refusing blood because they don't want to be excommunicated from the religion. "Coercion by actual or threatened shunning and excommunication can occur, and these factors may affect ... decision-making," says the academic article. The authors urged medical staff to make sure Jehovah's Witness patients who refuse blood are "acting without coercion." Calgary architectural project manager Lawrence Hughes --the former Jehovah's Witness whose daughter, Bethany, died four years ago after a high-profile court battle over transfusions -- said this week his life fell apart after he was shunned by the Jehovah's Witnesses when he initially allowed his cancer-ridden daughter to receive blood. "When I signed the consent card [to allow his daughter to have blood], I didn't have anyone I could phone or talk to," Hughes said Friday. "I was disfellowshipped, kicked out. For many people who are excommunicated from the Witnesses, they lose their family, their friends and even their jobs, because they're often working for Witnesses." Individual Jehovah's Witnesses can't speak out against their leaders for fear of losing everything, Hughes said. He felt a sense of subtle coercion each year when he, like all other Jehovah's Witnesses, was asked at his local Kingdom Hall to sign a card saying he refuses to accept blood transfusions for himself or those under his care. In a telephone interview, Guichon, the Calgary medical and legal expert, said she had tremendous sympathy for medical staff forced to make agonizing decisions about Jehovah's Witnesses who are dying for lack of blood. To ensure the "authentic wishes" of Witnesses are met in hospitals, Guichon recommends medical officials and the courts only accept written "advance directives" from patients about refusing blood transfusions that are written in consultation with independent lawyers, not Watchtower officials. Hughes agrees with the declarations Guichon and other scholars and legal experts made in their recent public statement, which says the Jehovah's Witnesses operate as an "authoritarian" religion that denies members the freedom to enjoy birthdays or Christmas, to attend the weddings or funerals of friends from other religions, join a political party, sing O Canada or seek most forms of higher education. Ruge, the Watchtower Society spokesman, refused an earlier request by The Vancouver Sun to write an opinion piece responding to the public statement by Guichon and four others: St. Mary's University College religion professor Michael Duggan; University of Alberta sociologist Stephen Kent; Florida lawyer, author and ex-Witness Kerry Louderback-Wood; and Michael Saunders, a former Witness and paralegal in the Watchtower Society's Canadian law firm. "Virtually everything was wrong in it [the statement]," Ruge said. Asked several times to say what was incorrect, he repeatedly declined. When Ruge was specifically asked to counter the claim that Witnesses don't celebrate birthdays, he acknowledged that was correct. Ruge said he may feel freer to talk with the media after the case involving the Vancouver sextuplets is resolved in court. He said he was doing so out of respect for the parents' request for privacy. Until then, Ruge said, "If someone has an axe to grind, let them grind it." [email protected] © The Vancouver Sun 2007CREDIT: Vancouver Sun/CP/Handout photo Bethany Hughes -
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WT BLOOD GUILT EXPOSED TO THE WORLD
by DannyHaszard inparents don't get a moral pass.
toronto star, canada - 3. even the discovery that their parents were devout jehovah's witnesses and is there any other kind of watchtower congregant?
raised only faint alarm ... rosie [email protected] the author.
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DannyHaszard
The babies, born nearly three months before they were due, were believed to weigh only 1.8 pounds each at birth. Parents of sextuplets to fight BC gov't in court
CTV.ca, Canada - 10 minutes ago
The parents are Jehovah's Witnesses whose religion forbids blood transfusions under any circumstances. Their lawyer, Shane Brady, wants the court to rule ...Lawyer Shane Brady
Parents of sextuplets to fight B.C. gov't in court
Updated Mon. Apr. 16 2007 9:18 AM ET
Canadian Press The parents of Canada's first sextuplets are in court today in Vancouver to fight the B.C. government's seizure of their babies for potentially life-saving blood transfusions. The parents are Jehovah's Witnesses whose religion forbids blood transfusions under any circumstances. Their lawyer, Shane Brady, wants the court to rule that their constitutional rights were violated.
The B.C. government gave control of the children's medical future back to the parents soon after the parents started court proceedings.
But Brady says the parents want some answers and they want the court to say that the government's action was unfair and shouldn't have happened. The six babies were born January 7th -- almost three months premature. Two of the six died soon after birth. Brady wouldn't elaborate on what condition the four surviving babies are in, other than to say "they're healthy.''
Parents of sextuplets fight blood transfusions in court
CBC.ca, Canada - 36 minutes ago
The parents are Jehovah's Witnesses, and their religion bans transfusions. Two of the six died before the province seized the remaining babies. ... -
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WT BLOOD GUILT EXPOSED TO THE WORLD
by DannyHaszard inparents don't get a moral pass.
toronto star, canada - 3. even the discovery that their parents were devout jehovah's witnesses and is there any other kind of watchtower congregant?
raised only faint alarm ... rosie [email protected] the author.
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185
WT BLOOD GUILT EXPOSED TO THE WORLD
by DannyHaszard inparents don't get a moral pass.
toronto star, canada - 3. even the discovery that their parents were devout jehovah's witnesses and is there any other kind of watchtower congregant?
raised only faint alarm ... rosie [email protected] the author.
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DannyHaszard
Do Jehovah's Witnesses have free choice on blood transfusions?
Do Jehovah's Witnesses have free choice on blood transfusions?
Vancouver Sun (subscription), Canada - 12 minutes ago
A group of top academics as well as former Jehovah's Witnesses are raising stark warnings about the ethical ramifications of a Vancouver court case delving ...The Watchtower Society, the legal and political body representing the six-million-member religion, portrays itself as a champion of religious freedom.
Asked whether some Jehovah's Witnesses might feel coerced into refusing transfusions, Mark Ruge, Ontario-based spokesman for the Canadian Watchtower Society, said: "People can say whatever they want. I don't have the time to counter every accusation that's made."
The group of legal and religion specialists claims the society fights mainly for freedom for the religious organization -- not for freedom of conscience for individual Witnesses.
"We've all come together because of the number of people who are dying," says Juliet Guichon, who teaches health law and medical ethics at the University of Calgary.
In a recent public statement, Guichon joined two religious scholars and two former Jehovah's Witnesses with legal expertise in saying that the actions of the Watchtower Society "suggest that these leaders value doctrinal adherence more than they do the lives of their members."
The statement says senior medical officials confronted by Jehovah's Witnesses who refuse blood transfusions for themselves or dependents are often unable to make sound ethical decisions because they're limited by their own "ignorance of the Watchtower's authoritarian rule."
In other words, the statement claims, medical staff often don't realize individual Witnesses in medical emergencies may be overwhelmed by their fear of the religious and social repercussions of accepting a transfusion.
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NEWS-JW ELDER Murders Wife
by DannyHaszard inhttp://news.google.com/news?hl=en&tab=wn&ie=utf-8&q=jehovah+witness top ranked news twisted sordid soap opera story have to read slowly to make sense of it linden woman found dead in creek.
stabroek news, guyana - 10 minutes ago.
her husband, shane anthony, a teacher at the mackenzie high school and an elder in the linden jehovah's witness church was held and was charged on friday .... .
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DannyHaszard
Body in creek
Stabroek News, Guyana - 1 hour ago
Both were members of the Jehovah Witness Church with Shane being an elder. Then there was the murder of Nasleen Mohammed whose partly decomposed body was ...
Linden woman found dead in creekStabroek News
all 2 news articles »On April 7, 25-year-old Melissa Anthony was found murdered in a pool of blood at her Retrieve, Linden home by her nephew. Shane Anthony, the woman's husband, has since been charged with her murder and is expected to appear in court tomorrow. At the time of the discovery he was down the road from the house teaching. But there are reports that the police received information that the two were seen fighting underneath their house the said morning. The murder shocked Linden and the charge slapped against the husband has divided the township. Both were members of the Jehovah Witness Church with Shane being an elder.
(JW's are accusing 'apostates' of exaggerations on this case well read it for yourselves)
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WT BLOOD GUILT EXPOSED TO THE WORLD
by DannyHaszard inparents don't get a moral pass.
toronto star, canada - 3. even the discovery that their parents were devout jehovah's witnesses and is there any other kind of watchtower congregant?
raised only faint alarm ... rosie [email protected] the author.
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DannyHaszard
Anyone doing a news search of WT/JW news will find this essay at the TOP by Randy Watters good timing
Jehovah's Witnesses Blood Ban Conception Deception
Post Chronicle - Apr 10, 2007
In addition, many countries that would have banned Jehovah's Witnesses as a religion because of denying life-saving transfusions have been issued public ... -
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WT BLOOD GUILT EXPOSED TO THE WORLD
by DannyHaszard inparents don't get a moral pass.
toronto star, canada - 3. even the discovery that their parents were devout jehovah's witnesses and is there any other kind of watchtower congregant?
raised only faint alarm ... rosie [email protected] the author.
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DannyHaszard
Any forum posters from France contribute on this development?
French Security Police Probe Evangelical Churches
Crosswalk.com, VA - 1 hour ago
The hospital heads were specifically asked about Muslims, Jehovah's Witnesses and evangelicals, but not about Catholics. Some 80 percent of people in France ...French Security Police Probe Evangelical Churches
CNSNews.com, VA - 1 hour ago
The hospital heads were specifically asked about Muslims, Jehovah's Witnesses and evangelicals, but not about Catholics. Some 80 percent of people in France ...A year ago, government investigators asked hospital administrators to provide information on any religious-related matter involving patients that may be of importance. The hospital heads were specifically asked about Muslims, Jehovah's Witnesses and evangelicals, but not about Catholics.
Any forum posters from France contribute on this development?
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WT BLOOD GUILT EXPOSED TO THE WORLD
by DannyHaszard inparents don't get a moral pass.
toronto star, canada - 3. even the discovery that their parents were devout jehovah's witnesses and is there any other kind of watchtower congregant?
raised only faint alarm ... rosie [email protected] the author.
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DannyHaszard
Sextuplet battle returns to courtroom
Canoe.ca, Canada - 1 hour ago
While they are in court for the two-day hearing, former Jehovah's Witnesses will be outside protesting the stance of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society... The court battle was postponed after the Ministry of Children and Families asked for an adjournment because of the massive amount of data that had been forwarded. Brady said the parents are pursuing the appeal even though the government gave control of their children's medical future back to them after they started court proceedings. ....While they are in court for the two-day hearing, former Jehovah's Witnesses will be outside protesting the stance of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society
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WT BLOOD GUILT EXPOSED TO THE WORLD
by DannyHaszard inparents don't get a moral pass.
toronto star, canada - 3. even the discovery that their parents were devout jehovah's witnesses and is there any other kind of watchtower congregant?
raised only faint alarm ... rosie [email protected] the author.
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DannyHaszard
Must read for all updates http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/16/128626/5.ashx posted page 4 ongoing thread Sextuplet blood-transfusion case heads to court
Montreal Gazette (subscription), Canada - 1 hour ago
A group of top academics as well as former Jehovah's Witnesses are raising stark warnings about the ethical ramifications of a Vancouver court case delving ...Sextuplet blood-transfusion case heads to court
DOUGLAS TODD, CanWest News Service
Published: Monday, April 16, 2007
A group of top academics as well as former Jehovah's Witnesses are raising stark warnings about the ethical ramifications of a Vancouver court case delving into whether blood transfusions should have been forced this year on at least two of the surviving premature sextuplets of Witness parents.
The critics of the Jehovah's Witnesses maintain the controversial case, which will be heard in B.C. Supreme Court today, reflects a pattern in which the religion fails to give adherents true freedom of choice about whether to accept life-saving transfusions.
While some former Witnesses are promising to picket outside the Vancouver courthouse, a group of scholars and legal specialists has written a statement declaring the religion often pressures followers not to follow their individual conscience, including while deciding whether to accept transfusions......
