jwleaks
JoinedPosts by jwleaks
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CANADA | Toronto Star | May 3, 2013 - Jehovah's Witnesses: Kindness is an act of grace - not an obligation
by jwleaks inwho should be responsible for financially supporting jehovah's witnesses, who put misguided faith in the failed 1975 "end-of-the-world" predictions, and went full-time preaching without any consideration for retirement many years later?.
kindness is an act of grace not an obligationare successful brothers ethically required to help aging moneyless sister?
toronto star.
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CANADA | Toronto Star | May 3, 2013 - Jehovah's Witnesses: Kindness is an act of grace - not an obligation
by jwleaks inwho should be responsible for financially supporting jehovah's witnesses, who put misguided faith in the failed 1975 "end-of-the-world" predictions, and went full-time preaching without any consideration for retirement many years later?.
kindness is an act of grace not an obligationare successful brothers ethically required to help aging moneyless sister?
toronto star.
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jwleaks
Who should be responsible for financially supporting Jehovah's Witnesses, who put misguided faith in the failed 1975 "end-of-the-world" predictions, and went full-time preaching without any consideration for retirement many years later?
Kindness is an act of grace — not an obligation
Are successful brothers ethically required to help aging moneyless sister?
Toronto Star
Fri May 3, 2013
By: Ken Gallinger Ethically speaking columnist
Q: My husband grew up in a family of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Upon leaving home, half the siblings stayed with the religion, while the others vehemently rejected it. One sister became a “Pioneer;” she moved west to promote the religion as her calling in life.
Flash forward 40 years, and Pioneer Sis is now 65 years old. She has never had a job as such, and has always relied on the “green handshake” to get by. Her brothers have become successful, and are now being asked to support their sister in retirement. Is it our responsibility to do this?
A: Complicated ethical questions get easier when you filter out irrelevant factors.
In your case, the “Jehovah’s Witness” thing, as such, is beside the point. Sis made a choice: to dedicate life to her faith. But lots of people make choices that leave them without adequate resources for retirement. Some choose to be artists or musicians; others gamblers or drunks. Some choose religious vocation, others a lifetime on the sofa eating Jos Louis. Some spend every cent on consumer goods, retiring with a mountain of debt; others save and invest.
Depending on our biases, we judge some choices better than others; I tend to think a life given to faith might be more fulfilling than one given to IBM, but that’s just my bias. Evaluating Sis’s decisions is not up to you. Your dilemma is simpler: given that someone makes choices that leave them impoverished, are siblings obligated to support them?
The answer is “no.”
Your sister-in-law’s poverty wasn’t forced upon her by health, disability, addiction or violence. That would be a different situation. But Sis made decisions of her own free will. Responsibility for the consequences is hers — not yours.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t help; I am saying you shouldn’t feel obligated to do so. That one word, “obligated,” is all the difference.
Presumably you and your husband are also at, or near, retirement age. If you have adequate resources to take care of yourself and decide to shower Sis with financial blessings, that’s a lovely thing to do. But that’s the point: your help needs to be understood as an act of generosity, rather than of obligation. It’s something you choose to do, rather than something you must do.
Several years ago, the Newfoundland folk band Great Big Sea recorded a hit called Consequence Free. The chorus went: “I wanna be consequence free; I wanna be where nothing really matters.” Good luck with that. Whether a consequence-free world would be an improvement is highly debatable; what’s clear is that life, in fact, doesn’t work that way.
It’s terrific that, in Canada, much of life, for most people, is shaped by choices we make, rather than dictates imposed by others. But the old principle of logic that we learned in high school, “if A, then B” still applies, even here.
Sis made a decision about her life’s course. Hopefully, it worked out as she wanted. If you choose to help out with the financial results, that’s very kind. But kindness is an act of grace — not obligation.
You say she’s never had a job in her life. McDonalds is hiring.
http://www.thestar.com/life/2013/05/03/kindness_is_an_act_of_grace_not_an_obligation.html
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AUSTRALIA | TRANSCRIPT of Child Abuse Inquiry into Jehovah's Witnesses and Watchtower Society - April 2013
by jwleaks injw leaks has published the 17 page official transcript of the appearance by watchtower bible and tract society of australia and jehovah's witnesses before the "inquiry into the handling of child abuse by religious and other organisations" conducted on 11 april 2013 in victoria, australia.. http://jwleaks.org/australia/.
quote from rachel van witsen, legal counsel for watchtower bible and tract society of australia and jehovah's witnesses, in reply to who is responsible for reporting child abuse within the religion of jehovah's witnesses... .
ms van witsen at the moment, because there is no mandatory reporting for ministers of religion in victoria, then the victim, who has very often had their dignity removed, is then put in the drivers seat.. .
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jwleaks
The CHAIR — Good afternoon. On behalf of the committee I welcome Mr Terrence O’Brien, director of the Society and Acting Branch Coordinator from the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Australia (Jehovah’s Witnesses) ... I would like to open up the questioning to you and ask you: do you maintain records on the number, nature, extent and outcomes of allegations of any criminal abuse within your church?
Mr T. OBRIEN — Sorry. Could you just repeat that? I did not quite catch that.
TRANSLATION
Mr T. OBRIEN — I know nothing.
Mr McGUIRE — Okay. Religious personnel are not mandated reporters in Victoria. What is your church’s policy on reporting allegations of child sexual abuse to police or to child protection?
Mr T. O’BRIEN — I missed a bit of the question again, sorry.
Mr McGUIRE — Religious personnel are not mandated reporters in Victoria. What is your church’s policy on reporting allegations of criminal child abuse to police and child protection?
Mr T. O’BRIEN — I did not quite understand.
TRANSLATION
Mr McGUIRE — What is your church’s policy on child protection?
Mr T. O’BRIEN — I missed a bit of the question again, sorry.
Mr McGUIRE — What is your church’s policy on child protection?
Mr T. O’BRIEN — I did not quite understand.
NOTHING TO SEE HERE FOLKS!
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AUSTRALIA | TRANSCRIPT of Child Abuse Inquiry into Jehovah's Witnesses and Watchtower Society - April 2013
by jwleaks injw leaks has published the 17 page official transcript of the appearance by watchtower bible and tract society of australia and jehovah's witnesses before the "inquiry into the handling of child abuse by religious and other organisations" conducted on 11 april 2013 in victoria, australia.. http://jwleaks.org/australia/.
quote from rachel van witsen, legal counsel for watchtower bible and tract society of australia and jehovah's witnesses, in reply to who is responsible for reporting child abuse within the religion of jehovah's witnesses... .
ms van witsen at the moment, because there is no mandatory reporting for ministers of religion in victoria, then the victim, who has very often had their dignity removed, is then put in the drivers seat.. .
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jwleaks
JW LEAKS has published the 17 page official transcript of the appearance by Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Australia and Jehovah's Witnesses before the "Inquiry into the Handling of Child Abuse by Religious and other Organisations" conducted on 11 April 2013 in Victoria, Australia.
QUOTE from Rachel van Witsen, legal counsel for Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Australia and Jehovah's Witnesses, in reply to who is responsible for reporting child abuse within the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses...
Ms VAN WITSEN — At the moment, because there is no mandatory reporting for ministers of religion in Victoria, then the victim, who has very often had their dignity removed, is then put in the driver’s seat.
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JW's join the Bogota Colombia book fair trade 2013
by OneDayillBeFree inlink will be below.
there's an email that's been floating around all over the jdub's emails and it somehow got sent to me.
i don't know if there's already been a post on this but i thought i should share.
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ARTICLE - 25 April 2013 - New York Times - God and Doctor (Jehovah's Witnesses)
by jwleaks innew york times | health.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/25/god-and-doctor/.
god and doctorby mikkael a. sekeres, m.d.april 25, 2013.. when he came to the hospital, he did not look well.. you might think that everyone with a recent leukemia diagnosis appears ill, but that isnt true.
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jwleaks
NEW YORK TIMES | HEALTH
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/25/god-and-doctor/
God and Doctor
By MIKKAEL A. SEKERES, M.D. APRIL 25, 2013
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When he came to the hospital, he did not look well.
You might think that everyone with a recent leukemia diagnosis appears ill, but that isn’t true. Some go to their primary care doctor with vague complaints of feeling tired or of having a cold, and a few hours after having their blood drawn are stunned to receive a phone call that they must get to the hospital immediately. Some get “stuck” in the Kübler-Ross stage of denial, refusing to believe they have leukemia even after they’ve received chemotherapy for it, or in the bargaining stage, negotiating for just one more bone marrow biopsy to confirm the diagnosis.
Others look like my new patient.
“His hemoglobin is 2.7,” my leukemia fellow told me. A normal hemoglobin for a man should be closer to 15. “When we drew his blood, it came out almost clear.”
“How many bags of blood are you going to give him?” I asked.
She hesitated. “He’s refusing any blood product transfusions. He’s a Jehovah’s Witness.”
The Jehovah’s Witnesses are a religious group that believes, among other things, that only a minority of people reach heaven. They also believe that it is wrong to receive the tissue of another human being, and that doing so violates God’s law, even if potentially lifesaving.
This presented quite an ethical quandary. To treat our patient’s cancer adequately, we would need to give him chemotherapy at doses high enough to obliterate his entire bone marrow, at least for a while. During this time, he would not be able to manufacture his own red blood cells or platelets, so we would have to support him with transfusions — sometimes as frequently as daily. Supportive measures like blood product transfusions and antibiotics have led to a marked drop in mortality from the actual leukemia treatment over the past half century, to less than 5 percent. Without such supportive measures, death is almost guaranteed. Without chemotherapy, though, death is certain, at the hands of the leukemia itself.
My fellow and I walked into our patient’s room to talk with him. He was lying in bed and surrounded by his relatives, who were sitting in chairs or on his bed. He smiled weakly at us, pale but handsome. We introduced ourselves to everyone and then started talking about how to treat his leukemia.
“So, you understand that the therapy we recommend has the potential to cure you, but it is unlikely you’ll be able to survive the chemotherapy without receiving blood transfusions?” I summarized.
“I understand,” he said.
“But if we don’t treat your leukemia, you will die from it.” I looked him in the eyes, at the crow’s-feet that told me he had laughed a lot of times in his life, and down to his hands, holding those of his niece, sitting by his side. Tears were streaming down her cheeks.
“I know.”
“I heard that you’re a Jehovah’s Witness. I come from a different background – I’m Jewish.”
“Well, nobody’s perfect!” his brother piped up. Everyone laughed, easing the tension in the room.
“I have different beliefs from you, so I can’t say I totally understand where you’re coming from, but I respect your faith, and we’ll follow your lead on what you want to do,” I told the patient. “You’re the boss.”
“No, he’s the boss,” he said, pointing toward the ceiling, and beyond. Others in the room nodded in agreement.
He declined transfusions, but he did want to receive chemotherapy, so we compromised on a lower-dose treatment, and minimized our lab draws to one per week, to preserve what blood he had. After two weeks his hemoglobin dropped to 2.1; after three weeks, it fell to 1.8. One month into his hospitalization, he became too dizzy to stand, and his heart, starved for the oxygen his missing red blood cells would have carried, just stopped beating. He had cardiac arrest and died.
The staff on the leukemia floor took his death hard, all plagued by the same question: Had we done enough for him?
We enter our chosen profession to kill that malignant golem, leukemia. But our patient approached his leukemia focusing more on eternity than his time on earth. While many felt his belief had tied our hands so that we couldn’t treat his leukemia optimally, ultimately our responsibility must be to our patient’s goals more than to our own: in this case, his relationship to God, and his desire to reach heaven. I hope he made it.
Dr. Mikkael Sekeres is director of the leukemia program at the Cleveland Clinic.
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BRITAIN - 23 April 2013 - Criminal Damage to Jehovah's Witness building in Felpham
by jwleaks incriminal damage to jehovah's witness building in felpham .
23 april 2013. .
police are appealing for witnesses after the jehovah's witness kingdom hall, flansham lane in felpham was subjected to religiously aggravated criminal damage overnight between thursday 11 april and friday 12 april.
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Article - April 2013 - Journal of the American Academy of Physician Assistants - Managing severe anemia when the patient is a Jehovah's Witness
by jwleaks inmanaging severe anemia when the patient is a jehovah's witness.
teaching points.
severe anemia in a patient who will not accept blood products presents a significant challenge for the health care team.
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jwleaks
Managing severe anemia when the patient is a Jehovah's Witness
TEACHING POINTS
¦ Severe anemia in a patient who will not accept blood products presents a significant challenge for the health care team. As health care providers, we must be aware of these patients' wishes and have plans in place to provide care from the time of admission to the day of discharge.
¦ Jehovah's Witnesses will refuse all major blood fractions, including whole blood, packed RBCs, plasma, and platelets. Minor fractions are allowed and the decision to accept or refuse these fractions is a personal one made by each Witness.
¦ The goals of anemia management include cessation of blood loss, meticulous conservation of blood, optimizing hematopoiesis, and assessing the patient's physiologic tolerance of anemia.
¦ Profound anemia with a hemoglobin level of 2.6 g/dL is survivable without a blood transfusion.
¦ A conservative dosing regimen of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents can be effective in increasing the hemoglobin level of severely anemic patients.
... continued
http://www.jaapa.com/managing-severe-anemia-when-the-patient-is-a-jehovahs-witness/article/289099/
