In 20th century Canada, Jehovah’s Witnesses were persecuted for their proselytizing and wartime pacifism. Fighting back in court, the Watchtower Society helped advance Canadian human rights including when, in 1990, they successfully won recognition of a patient’s right to refuse medical treatment, even if death will result.
The legal challenge stemmed from the Watchtower Society rule that Jehovah’s Witnesses may not accept blood transfusions. In 1990, it appeared to the Court that a well-informed and freely held religious belief was in need of defending.
But times have changed.
Now that the internet enables former Jehovah’s Witnesses to post information about religious practices, whether individual Jehovah’s Witnesses are truly free to make an informed decision is seriously in doubt.
Not all Jehovah’s Witnesses refuse blood, just as not all Catholics refuse contraception.
Yet the Watchtower Society – which governs adherents – adopts and encourages behaviour that raises questions about whether many Jehovah’s Witnesses may express an enlightened and free decision about blood transfusions.
Writing anonymously because of their fear of losing family and friends, some Jehovah’s Witnesses have taken to the internet to expose the pressure applied to followers to comply with the ban against blood transfusions.
Also speaking out is a former Jehovah’s Witness, Lawrence Hughes, who has already suffered the punishment of estrangement from family and friends. The claims of Hughes and of anonymous writers about poor information and lack of freedom suggest that patients do not have sufficient capacity to make medical decisions about blood transfusion.
These critics detail that the Watchtower Society teaches that blood transfusions are unsafe using outdated medical articles from the 1960s and alarmist articles from the 1980s, when HIV was in the blood supply. The official website for the Jehovah’s Witnesses instructs adherents that saline is a sufficient alternative, which is factually incorrect in many cases of life-threatening hemorrhage.
The Watchtower Society presents difficulties in the exercise of free choice. Anonymous followers and former followers claim that the Society compromises patient freedom by encouraging “disfellowshipping,” a type of shunning that applies “even with respect to [the adherent’s] relatives, including those within his immediate family circle.”
The coercive pressure to refuse blood was described by a Jehovah’s Witness to one of the authors in this way: “If I accepted blood, I would be as good as dead any way. […] Jehovah’s Witnesses who ‘choose wrongly’ have a price to pay, which is excommunication and the loss of their family and loved ones. I could die from no blood, or I could ‘die’ taking blood, by losing my family.”
Critics also claim that Watchtower Society officials shadow patients in the hospital to ‘encourage’ the patient to abide by the blood ban. Lawrence Hughes said in an interview with the CBC, “Just having those people in the next room, to me, is enough undue influence.”
The Watchtower Society prohibition of blood transfusions is at the centre of the recent case of a young woman in Quebec, who died after facing complications during childbirth. Eloise Dupuis, a Jehovah’s Witness, died Oct. 12, six days after a hemorrhage that occurred after delivering a baby by C-section at a hospital near Quebec City.
The Quebec coroner is investigating Dupuis’ death and the death of Mirlande Cadet, a Jehovah’s Witness who died Oct. 3 after experiencing complications following the birth of her son at a Montreal hospital.
Under Quebec law, healthcare providers must normally respect the wishes of adults with capacity even if death might ensue.
The Society requires members to sign, to update annually and to always carry with them a document titled “No Blood.” Yet, internet revelations claim that many Jehovah’s Witnesses have neither accurate information regarding blood transfusion safety, the freedom to sign or not sign without repercussion, nor the encouragement to obtain independent legal advice.
The Watchtower Society apparently polices compliance.The freedom to make an independent legal decision is compromised when a person in authority is present. Therefore, the document has highly questionable legal validity.
The internet revelations and allegations were not available to the Ontario Court of Appeal that decided the 1990 case. Therefore no court has wrestled with the essential problems of poor information and lack of voluntariness experienced by many Jehovah’s Witnesses. The Watchtower Society’s behaviour in misstating the risks and benefits of blood, and encouraging, if not requiring, the shunning of friends and family, raise serious doubt as to whether patients have sufficient information and freedom to accept or to refuse blood transfusion.
Given such decision-making challenges, health care providers should look to the law for better guidance than that offered in the Mallette v. Shulman case.
In the interim, they should act in the patient’s best interest by setting aside legally dubious blood cards, seeking consent only when the patient is alone, executing medical decisions confidentially, and taking charge of who enters the patient’s room and who may be in the hallways. The best interests of the patient are paramount.
Internet revelations should cause the Quebec Coroner to inquire, “Given the allegations of Watchtower Society behaviour, may any Jehovah’s Witness make an enlightened and free medical decision-making regarding blood transfusion?”
And if the answer is no, then what guidance will lawmakers and judges offer to doctors?
The comments section is closed.
I am a former Jehovah’s Witness and now a former member. Also, a proud member of the NY bar. It is funny because Watchtower tried to deny me a basic college degree. I was forced to quit my candy striping position as a teen volunteer. It hurt so much. When I was a teen, I hoped that Watchtower would reform and change its ban on blood. A transfusion is not eating it. Also, Paul wrote that Christians are no longer under the Mosaic Law. It never paid much sense to me. The value for life is so high in Judaism that Orthodox Jews accept pig heart valves.
It is critical to get patients away from family members and especially, the Liason Committee. The committee is notified whenever a Witness enters a hospital. They apply intense pressure. Witnesses hear that they will not survive the imminent Battle of Armageddon and, therefore, cannot enjoy life on a paradise earth with their loved ones. Watchtower also spreads misinformation that there is no need for blood. Alternatives exist now. They quote sketchy medical journal articles. I know that alternatives are being developed. Development is not here and now. Perhaps judges could speak to people away from Watchtower members. If the adult is competent and they still choose no blood, removed from the Committee and Witness family members after receiving adequate information at their educational level, freedom of faith and bodily autonomy should be respected. I am very upset that some American judges allow Witness teens to refuse blood. Certainly, I came of age in the late 60s and recall feeling quite mature. A humorous view now. Perhaps a 17 and 3/4-year-old should not be forced. My own emotions about legal practices and blood transfusions remain mixed. It is the tension between respect for life, the life force so honored in scripture and personal autonomy to make even bad decisions. I doubt that Witnesses truly understand. According to the neutral Pew Foundation, they are the least educated group in the United States.
My parents became jw members many years ago and tried to recruit other family members for several years to no avail. My wife and I did agree to a book study out of curiosity and interest of what my parents were getting into, and what he’s were about. We did this for about two years before I learned enough to know that it wasn’t for me and we didn’t agree with many things they were teaching. Several years later my father had a severe heart attack but made it to the hospital with plenty of time to be operated on. The problem was he had lost a huge amount of blood during what we were told was a successful operation by the surgeon. Well he was told by the jw elders to check the no blood clause in his living will which he did but if he hadn’t he would have been shunned and possibly disfellowshiped. We were told by the jw’s it was ok because they allowed them to add a saline solution. But we found out this was not enough it only kept his veins from collapsing and didn’t carry oxygen throughout his body to his vital organs. So we ended up having to watch him slowly die as each organ was being starved for the oxygen in needed so that he could begin recovery. We stayed in constant contact with the surgeon, doctors, and nurses who gave us the information and who said all he needed was blood. The other thing that bothered me is even though they weren’t allowed to put his own blood back into his body the he’s had allowed the surgeon to install a pig valve in his heart to replace one that had suffered too much damage. To me that was a blood organ which isn’t that much different from blood. Needless to say I’m on a no knock list now and I will always hold jw’s partly or even mostly responsible. I know many people will say he was an adult capable of making decisions but I say they are the cult that brainwashed him and promised him great things for doing what they say even though that changes whenever it doesn’t suit what they are teaching. I’ll never forget my father’s last word which was no when he was asked the question ” you know jehova loves you don’t you ? ” please if you are interested in this religion do a little homework first and use common sense as my wife and I did before you you basically give your life to others.
I recently had surgery. Along the way, I spoke to medical individuals about this issue, and it is interesting to note their ignorance. What I found most surprising is their lack of caring. Their attitude is ‘JWs are on their own’ and ‘you joined that cult’…
In summer 2016 I took a trip to the United Nations to talk about this issue. I spent 2 hours with a pair of officers in a conference room. While there, they were somewhat empathetic. However, they broke the promises they made over that conference table in the subsequent months.
The governments don’t care. The world doesn’t care. Life is cheap and the attitude of outsiders is demonstrated in their allowing Watchtower to do what it wants.
I ashamed to say that at one time in my life I assisted Watchtower/ Jw.org in their legal activities. I remember one Watchtower lawyer telling me how those on the JW liason committee were trained when having to meet with hospital faculty who had concerns for their patients. One such tactic was to have the liason members strategically sit with their backs to the windows so their faces would not be clearly visible. This would create intimidation. It bothered me then. Haunts me now.
I have been in jws 50 years now no longer accept their stand on blood since the asurd policy of alowing fractions of blood.this raises the question if it ok to take fractions where do the fractions come from? They come from donors. So is it now ok for me to be a blood donor?
The WBTS claims that a baby’s clotting factor peaks on the 8th day hence the reason why baby boys were circumcised on the 8th day, therefore further proof that the bible is inspired by god. Is there any medical proof of this as I’ve never read it in any medical journal.
Where in the Bible does it say that fraction are ok, but whole blood is not?
It doesn’t, it is only men who have made this distinction under the self appointed “mouthpiece of God”
JWs say they refuse blood on Biblical grounds and then attempt to shore up their refusal with medical science selectively sourced or entirely misused. Then they ‘slip’ back to Scripture by saying,”Ultimately, we refuse because the Bible forbids it”.
In the meantime, a perusal of their one-sided literature continues to bolster a very dubiously literal take on ancient texts.
“In the interim—–”
This sounds like a very reasonable interim measure to tackle this problem for Witnesses.
It would not be a good idea to take away the right to refuse treatment even if it meant death for all patients.
I am all in favor of a patient having the right to refuse medical treatment. Absolutely. Everyone has that right . Providing their are of sound mind
The right to refuse implicitly means that a person also has the right to accept – and that is the right that has been taken away from them. They also have the right to accurate information in order to make an informed decision to accept or reject medical treatment. They don’t have that. The Watchtower’s promotional propaganda for alternative bloodless treatment never says anything about the risks of that treatment or anything at all about the benefits of a blood transfusion.
Many of the JWs still hold onto that outdated and superstitious belief that they will acquire the traits of the one who donated the blood and that notion came directly from the Watchtower back in the days of early transplants when transplants were prohibited by the WT. Many JWs believe that if they get the blood of a homosexual that they can become homosexual. Or that they could become a murderer if that is who gave them blood.
The JWs are pathetically misinformed and uninformed about the medical use of blood. What they really need is to be given the correct information about blood transfusions and to be de-programmed from the blood phobia that they have inherited from the Watchtower Society. The Watchtower Society is responsible for taking a phobia and turning it into a religious belief and then using that superstitious belief to promote medicine that avoids the sharing of blood.
I have to agree with everything you just wrote here
Personally, ANY treatment can be refused if a person thinks that it is either a religious stance or a helath issue.
The problem with the WT organization is even though they dont claim they are “inpried” they write and claim they are “Gods
prophet”, thus its member obey out of fear of going against God. A similar Biblical situation and dilemma happened in the Bible with the man Ahithophel, His words were as from God, or God’s “oracle”. He told his men to committ sin and they did. Being an oracle from God gives you a lot of power. People need to find out if the WT is really an oracle or not. For the most of us out of the group we found out they werent. Refusing blood is a personal matter.
From a third generation ex- Jehovahs Witness Australian perspective. Women in the organisation are expected to be obedient, submissive homemakers or pioneers (full-time preachers). The Watchtower corporation is a patriarchal, misogynistic organisation that discourages its adherents from pursuing higher education. Women like myself who had a minimum formal education are lead to believe that the Watchtower uses credible scientific research for its articles on health and that its “no blood policy” is bible based. In their own words, the Watchtower state that Christians are commanded to abstain from blood, you will prosper and have good health and it equates blood with fornication and idolatry. “Acts 15:28, 29 If you carefully keep yourselves from these things, you will prosper. Good health to you!” (There the eating of blood is equated with idolatry and fornication, things that we should not want to engage in)”. In an emergency such as a placenta abruption which I experienced with my fourth child, it is standard procedure to telephone an elder who supported my husband so he did not weaken in faith and consent to a blood transfusion for myself. Which I now understand is undue influence. Despite signing all the relevant no blood consent forms, I had no real understanding of the dangers posed by the WT no blood policy in an emergency situation. The personal cost of displaying a lack of faith or disobedience to the Watchtower and their interpretation of the bibles resurrection of the dead, by accepting a transfusion is to be treated by all friends and family as a person without faith, shunned, seen as unclean, mentality diseased and excommunicated, if you did not repent of the sin of accepting a transfusion, even if it saved your life. As a world rejecting in-group the threat of expulsion is an effective control mechanism as members have no external support and are taught from birth the world and worldly persons on the outside are under satanic control.
As a former JW (over 20 yrs in) and whose family are still in I can assure you 100% there are two reasons they don’t accept blood. Coercion and fear. Those who actually do honestly believe it’s wrong are victims of crafty manipulation both of scripture and medical science.
I find this very interesting having emerged from a cult environment myself, not JW, but there are similar characteristics – perhaps the preeminent being: “The leadership defining and enforcing personal convictions as God’s Word.” That’s the wonder of liberty in Christ – is HE leads us. Having said that, the issue of blood transfusions – there is NOTHING in the Scripture that prohibits this – the Lord saying, “The life is in the blood” and in the sacrifices, not to be consumed. (I summarized – “For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” (Lev 17:11). (A foreshadowing of Jesus shedding His blood for us, of course).
So, having said that, I have a problem with the medical profession in general, and how they acquire donated blood. I hope I’m never in a situation requiring it or medical attention AT ALL. (I’ve come by loathing of the medical profession honestly and have had all 5 of my kids at home, to begin with.) But that isn’t a biblical principle (other than 2 Chronicles 16:12: “And Asa in the thirty and ninth year of his reign was diseased in his feet, until his disease was exceeding great: yet in his disease he sought not to the LORD, but to the physicians.”)
You know cults by their fruits – split families, damaged individuals. Be wary of other such cults, especially politically and historically.
https://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/watchtower-study-february-2017
12 The Governing Body is neither inspired nor infallible. Therefore, it can err in doctrinal matters or in organizational direction.
Please JWs consider, since the Governing Body admit in the WT they “can err in doctrinal matters or in organizational direction,” please research more personally, deeply. Your life and the life of your loved ones depend on you reviewing all things.
The Watchtower Society uses terms in different ways than the rest of the world does.
“Informed consent” in JW speak actually means “informed by the organization and the organization only”.
The information that over rides anything and everything that a medical professional can tell a JW about the benefits of a blood transfusion is this: Paradise. Simply that. There is nothing that a doctor can tell a truly deluded JW that will overcome the promise they have been given to them by the Watchtower: that they will live forever in a paradise earth… if they reject a blood transfusion.
Just imagine Eloise Dupuis’s choices. She believed that if she accepted a blood transfusion that not only would she not be resurrected into that promised paradise but that she was also putting her baby’s chance at eternal life at risk. A baby, according to the WT, is judged on its parents’ actions. If it happens that “Armageddon” arrives before they have grown up enough to become baptized and the parents are not in Jehovah’s favor, then the child will be destroyed with no hope of a paradise existence. Therefore, in Eloise’s mind, she had to refuse blood so that her baby could also get to paradise – accept blood and neither her or her baby would make it through Armageddon. And, she had to reject the transfusion or her husband wouldn’t see her in paradise – he would lose too.
It is the same dilemma for all her family members. If her husband gave permission to transfuse her, he would lose his paradise hope. So would any other JW who stepped up to the plate and said “please, please, save this woman’s life and give her blood.”
The other phrase that has loaded meaning to it is “conscience matter”. The rest of the world thinks that this phrase means that each JW individual has permission to choose blood or not based on “their conscience”. The only place that this looks good is in a court of law that thinks the phrase means the same as it would in regular use: that the JW is free to use his/her conscience in deciding whether to take blood or not.
“Conscience matter” implies that the individual has freedom of choice. Well, they do. But what the WT fails to elaborate on is that refusing blood is a sign of a “godly conscience” and taking blood is a sign of “bad conscience” – with consequences.
The WT uses the individual’s stand on blood to define if their conscience is bad or good.
When a Jehovah’s Witness walks into a hospital with a noblood card in their wallet, or a noblood ID of some sort, they have a blood bomb strapped to their back. A bomb that will explode the minute they need a blood transfusion to live and the Watchtower doesn’t care how many people get splattered when it goes off. The emotional and psychological toll, not only on the entire medical staff, that have to deal with watching helplessly while the patient dies needlessly, but also on families, friends and entire communities, is a disaster that has a ripple impact with no real way to measure the damage. Invisible damage – trauma left behind. And then there is the visible damage – the increased cost and burden on our public health system in Canada to care for a group of people who have an imaginary rare blood disorder.
Most people will say “…oh, those stupid people, if they want to die, let them. It doesn’t affect anybody else.” But it does – the medical community has been throttled and held hostage for decades by an American corporation (the Watchtower Society) that has a phobia about sharing blood. The WTS has used and misused the law in order to force their brand of medicine onto the existing medical establishment.
When information is suppressed and the only information a person has on the subject is from one source, such as is the case with JWs, there is no informed decision.
I was a Witness for over thirty years and can confirm that this article is correct. Witnesses are raised in an environment where total obedience to Watchtower law is required across a wide range of subjects, under pain of shunning. They are taught never to read or share material that contradicts Watchtower laws and teachings, and again flouting this rule can potentially lead to shunning. They are largely forbidden from having friends or marrying those who are not witnesses, so when shunned they literaly lose everyone they know. The information they are given about blood is extremely misleading and incomplete, and compliance is enforce at the beside by the Hospital Liason Committee, who will observe if a Witness “chooses incorrectly” and form a committee with a view to potentially instruct shunning of that Witness.
The Witness might be able to convince this committee to forgive them if they are “truly repentant” in Watchtower parlance but this is by no means certain, as such committees are notoriously fickle. The person will need to prove they are sorry for taking a transfusion and surviving, and not simply trying to avoid being shunned. Additionally, if a medical condition requires multiple transfusions over a period of time, the committee will view the repeat offenders as proof that the person was not really sorry.
In short, Watchtower does indeed demand that Witesses choose between their lives and their loved ones.
JWs and blood transfusions are different than Catholics and contraception, because if a JW is discovered taking a blood transfusion they are automatically considered to have disassociated themselves and hence shunned.
For a good controversial documentary on Jehovah’s Witnesses from NBC Dateline: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbKXj8R4_X8
The question that needs to be asked about the Hospital Liaison Committee (the WT blood police) is whether they are involved in the JW patient’s care for the good of the patient or if their interests lie in promoting alternative treatments.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses are not dying for a religious belief, they are dying for the advancement of medical technologies and research. Most of the drugs that are used as alternatives to blood transfusions are used in an off-label fashion or they are drugs/products that have been approved only for Jehovah’s Witnesses under compassionate use programs as a way to either keep the product in production or to get into the marketplace.
Two examples.
In 1979, the FDA gave approval for the human testing of Fluosol-DA, a blood ‘substitute’ that was manufactured in Japan by Green Cross. The Jehovah’s Witness population was targeted for a clinical trial – which, of course, indicates that the Watchtower Society was involved in the FDA hearings, offering up the JWs as guinea pigs. And how did that go? Well, not so well. Fluosol-DA ended with with an FDA warning because of the high risks and mortality associated with it’s use and eventually was pulled from production.
And then there is the Hemopure trials. Same thing. Hemopure was tested on JWs (and others) along with other blood substitutes such as Polyheme. And FDA stopped the trials on those. Why? Because Hemopure added an additional 30% risk of mortality. Hemopure is still available, however. Only for JWS and only with FDA approval on an individual basis, arranged for by the Watchtower’s blood police – the HLC – and…the US Department of Defense. That’s right – the religion that disallows its members to enlist in military service, even to the point of imprisonment for those who refuse, will willingly and knowingly arrange for those same members to serve their country in the capacity of research subjects for military research in to blood products.
The Hospital Information Services of the Watchtower – the HLC – has a vested interest in promoting alternatives to blood transfusions. They have little interest in the JW patient’s spiritual beliefs other than that those beliefs are what keeps the bloodless industry well supplied with guinea pigs.
I forgot to add this.
The Hospital Liaison Committee became an official department of the Watchtower Society in….1979. The very same year that the clinical trials for Fluosol-DA would have required recruiters for the JWs who would be enrolled in those trials.
Hello
I’m not surprised at WT involvement in this greedy, selfish, scheme. Was wondering, where did you find all of this info? It is a mind blower. I have been out since 2013 and keep on learning more and more trash of this cult.
Have you or did you connect with Mike and Kim about this? I would be glad to share this with them if you wouldn’t mind.
Thank you for this info as I plan to share with my still “in” children.
Sincerely.
John
The idea that Jehovah’s Witnesses are free to make the decision not to take a blood transfusion is comparable to those at Jonestown being ‘free’ to make the decision to drink the Kool-Aid. You are brainwashed into either conforming what the religious leader(s) tell you to do, or risk losing everything you know and love. In essence, you have a spiritual gun to your head. My brother in law died because of the ban on blood transfusions. It’s a totally sickening doctrine that I’m pretty sure the present leaders know is bogus. However, if they get rid of it now, they risk multiple lawsuits from family members who lost loved ones after being told that Jehovah forbids human blood transfusion.
Jehovah’s Witnesses (JWs) predicted the end of the world, IN WRITING, numerous times. Not once did they come true. They truly are known for their ‘False Predictions’ the world over.
JWs are taught that they alone are TRUE Christians and that all other people not JW will soon be destroyed. This is no exaggeration.
JWs will allow their own children TO DIE rather than accept a life saving blood transfusion even in severe medical emergencies. It has already happened THOUSANDS of times!
Just like this mother died unnecessarily! http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/shropshire/7078455.stm
And now her husband has no wife and her two new twins have no mother. And all for what?
Or this teenager that also DIED: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/west_midlands/8690785.stm
This is very simple. JW’s NEEDLESSLY die for this sorry blood policy today.
From the same organization that has an entire 100 + year history of similar bad and embarrasing policies.
As a 15 year active JW and zealous person for Jehovah (and an elder) here is my own story: http://exjehovahswitnessforum.yuku.com/topic/922#.USEl4aWhDHh
JWs used to forbid Vaccinations and Organ Transplants (calling a life saving transplant “Cannibalism”) for a combined 33 years.
JWs enforce extreme shunning for any member that decides to leave their religion or who commits a sin without showing enough repentance in front of the elders.
Families have been devastated because of these harsh shunning policies. I have literally seen parents cut off all ties with their children solely because the kid did not want to remain a JW but went in another direction.
Even the ex-JWs who leave the religion on their own, who are 100 percent truthful, sincere, love God, pay their taxes, help others and more are still SHUNNED by all current JW’s and marked as godless, proud, sinning apostates. And the Awake magazine recently literally called them “mentally diseased”.
And MANY contemplate suicide because the penalties of losing everything are simply TOO MUCH TO TAKE.
But an honest question is: Why do so many JWs leave after being one time followers?
As I eventually found out, the JW religion did say, IN WRITING, that the end would come in 1914 and then again in 1925. Was Jehovah directing all that? 1914 and 1925 came and went! They were proven false predictions. Period.
They also said the end very likely would happen in 1975 and even commended (in the watchtower) witnesses for selling their houses and pioneering because of it.
But 1975 came and went!
They also said (for many decades) that the end would come before the generation born in 1914 passed away. In fact up until 1995 it was written inside each Awake magazine cover. Only they then had to change that meaning as well (including the Awake masthead) because that generation CAME AND WENT TOO.
I was a JW (and elder) for 15 years before leaving because of the blood and fractions policy 10 yrs ago. Today I’m shunned by all JWs simply because I left the religion.
Most JWs simply accept everything the Watchtower teaches and says as “food from God”. Just like I did.
Most believe God has chosen the Watchtower Society as his “channel”, which provides food from God Himself to their religion and ONLY their religion.
But an honest look at the facts of the JW religion shows God has not chosen the Watchtower for anything!
Take a LOOK: http://www.freeminds.org/history/part2.htm
ALL FROM THEIR OWN LITERATURE WITH DATES & PAGES TO SEE FOR YOURSELVES!!!
Pages and pages of mistakes, embarrassments, false predictions, medical disasters, weird science, doctrinal failures and more for over 100 years now!
Obviously ‘GOD’ would not get things wrong like this. Obviously ‘GOD’ did not provide bad food like that for their entire history.
But most JW’s have no idea about these things. They’re told to stay away from anything critical of their religion.
For example: Was God’s spirit with JW’s when they said Organ Transplants were a “conscience matter” in 1961?
OR,
Was God”s spirit with WT when they THEN SAID Organ Transplants are same as “Cannibalism” in 1967and forbid them?
OR, was God’s spirit with the Watchtower Society when they THEN SAID Organ Transplants are NOT the same as cannibalism in 1980 and now allow them?
Was God behind all those changes each time? Did ((GOD)) get all those things wrong each time? How many people DIED by refusing kidney transplants for example only later on to be told they’re OK to have now?
Which is why some end up taking their lives due to losing their family, or feel compelled to speak out about it, like me right here and now.
And now, because I walked away, JWs are demanded to shun you for life (including your very own family).
Which is why if I can help some honest hearted people by sharing my own story as a warning it’s truly is a worthwhile thing to do.
Examine, examine, examine and ask as many questions as you can.
Vinny
Vinny….Great summation of the JW’s.
Bottom line the JW’s are a Cult and operate that way.
I have pretty much put my past life with them behind me and have moved on but the trail of hurt and pain continues on for thousands of others. They say they are a religion of love but it’s just the opposite because their love is conditional. You must love their organization and put it above all else.
If not you will be heading for a quick exit. I was DF’d for “loose Conduct”…..which had nothing to do with sexual matters but was morphed into not agreeing with the elders, on several issues.
Bottom line you have to go along to get along.
Been out for over 20 years and life is good….went through my mourning stage, writing stage, and all the pain that went along with it….
Now I look back and feel sorry for all those still stuck in the fish bowl…..
You really don’t see the light until you are out of the fish bowl, but when that day happens the scales fall off your eyes and you can actually say Free at last Free at last…
Jim Rizoli
Framingham Mass
7hey Vinny. There you are again. Wow. You really get around. You must be on welfare to have so much time to troll the Internet posting your stuff that is removed as offensive from almost everywhere you post. Enjoy the free money and beer at the end of yhe month. It’s coming soon.
This is the reply of someone who cannot refute the statements, but instead tries to attack the person instead of the context because there is no defending the practices stated.
Thank you. I left about 14yrs ago for good when my first son was born. I come from an entire family of JWs. My dad was an elder, my mom is a pioneer, all my brothers and sisters (9 of them now…one brother committed suicide 3yrs ago) all my cousins, grandparents, aunts, uncles. I have dealt with this pain of shunning for years from family and old friends. It has led to depression, anxiety, alcoholism…I’m turning my life around but the pain is always there. I never understood the blood thing even when I was younger and baptized at 15. I was born in 1975 so perhaps Inwas destined to leave as I survived thru that Armaggedon prediction. Lol.
I was born in 1975 and was baptized when I was 13. I left about 15 years ago and life is so much better! All of my family are still JW’s. they will never see “the light” till they can step outside the box. Lol
This situation happened to My son-in-laws wife. Two years ago she died giving birth to twin girls due to refusing blood. HLC plus, elders, and half the congregation was there to make sure she nor husband would cave in to having blood.
Jump ahead about a year later, and my daughter(with a 5 yr old) married the father of the twins. They are happy and she loves the twins as if they were her own. Both are weak “in the truth”.
The WT has so much blood on its hands, it’s unfathomable.
Thank you for your insight on the subject,
Sincerely,
John
Wow, such an honest truthful declaration from a unknown faceless one name writer. Most writers provide there first and last name, photograph and a bio when publishing an “ news article.” Would u consider your column that? Hidden behind a single word “vinny” one might think your some kind of celebrity. Like Madonna or Seal or Sting. But those figures are part of the public. Do you dare to join the rest of the community or continue to be a faceless unknown celebrity. Your misinformation will be added to the rest of they dishonesty that fells the earth and turn honest hearted persons away from the truth. Your the one that left them as your “story” states. You don’t want their friendship anymore. They disassociate them selves from persons who are without kind things to say. That’s as simple as it gets. Even if all religions are just made up stories of faith. wouldn’t there story of how we should walk and how we should talk be welcomed in this world. That the earth will be a paradise one day and death will be no more and all living creatures will live as one. I like that story. I’d put my faith in that story. Look it up on there web site. You might come to know it more than a story that you could build you life around and be part of the human family and not the human race. If you would like to start your own road to truth the witnesses provides a self administered bible study online. Your welcome to use your own bible. I’m am not a baptized member but this is my witnesses to the digital community to spend a few minutes to fuel your current course in life or open up to freedoms only a study of information can give your mind peace and Thirst for more answers to questions that you maybe pondering. I dont know if I can post a link in my comment but go to Jw.org search : bible study online. Theirs a music video I’ve come to enjoy it’s called “the search” look for it on there site. Can be found else where but only Accurate information about the the jehovah witnesses can be found on there website. Jw.org
And the jw’s dont share the good news that the world is going to end they speak of this conclusion of system of things will end.
Fake news
Helpful but what to do when patient refuses your request blood committee to leave room.
With the liaison committee present this forms coercion and consent requires knowledge capacity and lack of coercion. I hope to never be in the situation again.
What do you say when a teen says her mom can stay in the room when you wish to speak about birth control or screen for illicit drug use? You take charge of the room, correct?