People 
| An Introduction |
| Written by Kerry Louderback-Wood |
| Wednesday, 08 April 2009 16:28 |
 My personal story is that I am a third generation Jehovah’s Witness. I left the religion at about seventeen years old, to pursue a college education which the religion did not promote. When I was born, my mother almost died of hemorrhage, but a relative secretly permitted her to have platelets. In her 70s, she refused a blood transfusion for anemia and suffered a fatal heart attack. Her death prompted me to revisit the religion’s stance on blood.
What is informed consent? Informed consent, in its simplest form, means that the patient is both informed of the consequences and risks of the treatment (or refusal of treatment) and freely consents to his medical decision. I am going to provide you with information that the Jehovah’s Witness decision is neither informed nor freely consented to. See here for my thoughts on how to deal with Jehovah’s Witness patients. Misinformation in Jehovah’s Witness literatureGrowing up as a Jehovah’s Witness, I was taught that Jehovah’s Organization (the Watchtower Society) was not to be questioned and it was “the Truth.” The Watchtower Society taught me that blood transfusions were a most grave sin that would cause one to lose all hope of Jehovah’s Kingdom. As a child and teenager, I was schooled in practice sessions of how I would tell doctors and courts that I would not accept a blood transfusion should the need arise. The Watchtower Society teaches all parents to hold such practice sessions with their children. In these teaching sessions, I studied materials written by the Watchtower Society. The main blood booklet which is still in use is called, “How Can Blood Save Your Life?” It contains pages of medical reasons why blood transfusions are not healthy and why alternative treatment is scientifically superior. My father used this Jehovah’s Witness booklet to influence doctors to administer erythropoietin to my anemic mother. He insisted that the hospital erred because it was an hour late in administering erythropoietin the night before her death. His impression after reading the booklet was that this shot would work “very quickly”, which to a layman meant a few minutes to an hour. The doctors tried to tell all that this drug took a long time to work, but it was incongruent with the Watchtower booklet. The discovery of this small untruth led me to verify seventeen other secular quotes in this teaching booklet. I found that the Watchtower Society consistently took secular author’s works out of context and created a dishonest, medical argument that bolsters their followers’ beliefs. The church over-amplifies both the risks related to blood transfusions and the benefits of bloodless treatment. In short, I sympathize with the medical community's task at clearing up the misinformation that has been instilled into the Jehovah’s Witness’ minds. The average Jehovah’s Witness does not have a college degree and has been inundated with inaccurate medical information by the Watchtower Society, all the while taught that medical professionals are the instrument of Satan when recommending blood. Hits: 2374 Trackback(0)
Comments (6)
  written by Shawn Holland , June 24, 2009 At 17 years old, you were not in the religion to leave it. You just chose a different life course. Your mother's choice to refuse blood are her choices. It is not the Watchtower Society's choice. report abuse
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 written by Mary Patterson , July 22, 2009 Nothing that Shawn Holland wrote, makes any sense. Of course a 17 year old can 'be in the religion'. How exactly do you think she left? As far as the blood transfusions themselves go, Witnesses have no choice in the matter. They have been brainwashed into believing that by accepting a transfusion, they are forefitting their eternal salvation. The WTS won't wait for Jehovah to punish you, they'll start the ball rolling by disfellowshipping you, cutting you off from family, life-long friends, effectively destroying your life now. My own feeling is that it'll be another 5 - 10 years before they make the whole blood doctrine a 'conscience matter'. They've already introduced blood fractions into the equation, so it's only a matter of time before they allow "platelets" "red cells" and "white cells". Of course, their real worry is not how many die needlessly because of their warped views, but rather on how they can avoid the inevitable lawsuit from angry and bitter relatives who had to watched their loved ones die due to this arbitrary ruling. report abuse
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 written by Tori , August 19, 2009 At the age of 17 I was a baptised regular pioneer who had given up plans for an education in exchange for the ministry. How dare Shawn Holland make a judgement based entirely on the age of the writer. If a 17 year old is expected to make life long choices regarding career and education, they are certainly capable of making their own spiritual decisions as well. No longer a witness now myself I wanted to offer up one question I had innocently asked in my youth that I never received a proper answer for that still puzzles me. In regards to the blood issue I know that we refused to eat meat that contained by-products. For example we would only order pizza from places that offered all-beef pepperoni. One day I asked my mother why we eat ground beef when the meat clearly contains blood in the package. Her inability to answer me was confusing and I never did get an answer for this question. The closest thing to an answer I ever got was from my mother who eventually told me that the blood leaves the meat in the cooking process and the beef becomes acceptable to eat. She never could explain why the same wasn't true for pepperoni containing by-products, and I was left with an image of the blood evaporating by some magical means during the cooking process. Another odd experience with the blood issue, when I graduated from highschool I received two gifts from my mother. One was a watch, even though I didn't wear watches, and the other was a medical alert necklace that was engraved "no blood products". Since I have a fatal allergy to penicillan I was puzzled why she wouldn't have also included that on the medical alert. She was so proud of the gift that when I asked she simply said she hadn't thought of it and would have it added later. That never happened. report abuse
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 written by Betty , September 12, 2009 I read your article, "Jehovah's Witnesses, Blood Transfusions, and the Tort of Misrepresentation" when it first came out. I was no longer one of Jehovah's Witnesses when I read it. I worked in a university library and I was very excited to read it, and to also see how well documented your research was. I was a Jehovah's Witness for 30 years. I was baptized at the age of 19. My parents were not religious and I had no knowledge of the Bible. Because they were able to show me God's name was Jehovah, in my old King James Bible, I studied with them and was baptized, married a JW, and raised my kids as JWs. I was 49 when I left in 1995, but was never disfellowshipped, so my children and grandchildren don't shun me. I was just cleaning out a cabinet when I came across your article again and was prompted to write to praise you for it! report abuse
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 written by Lily Myers , October 15, 2009 Shawn Holland's comment is so ridiculous. Of course it is the Watchtower Society's decision that no JW can receive a blood transfusion. That is their doctrine and it is reiterated over and over again to JW's. If the doctrine were to be reversed and a full blood transfusion become acceptable, then most of JW's would accept it if it meant life or death and especially would do anything that would save the life of their children - which they don't do now because the Watchtower doesn't allow it and they are brainwashed to accept this evil doctrine even if it means the death and sacrifice of their child to the Watchtower religion's teaching. report abuse
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 written by Joy Nichols , January 07, 2010 Not only are JWs brainwashed into believing they forfeit "eternal salvation" by accepting a blood transfusion, they also risk being disfellowshipped and shunned by all their friends and family for it. This disfellowshipping practice has destroyed many familial relationships and devastated many, especially children brought up in the church, who do NOT have a choice. If, as teens or young adults, they are "baptized" in the faith, but decide to leave it, they are permanently cut off from all their social and family ties within this bOrganization. It is devastating to many, especially young people who need family support in hard economic times. If you know young JWs trying to leave their faith, offer them ALL the support you can. report abuse
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