Author McEwan condemns Jehovah's Witnesses as 'perverse and inhumane'

by Watchtower-Free 11 Replies latest watchtower medical

  • Watchtower-Free
    Watchtower-Free

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/10728126/McEwan-condemns-perverse-and-inhumane-decisions-of-religious-parents.html

    Non religious people are better at making reasonable, compassionate judgements, Ian McEwan argues, as he condemns the "utterly perverse and inhumane" decision of religious parents allowing their children to die.

    McEwan, the author of Atonement, On Chesil Beach and Enduring Love, said he believed religion to be "distinctly unhelpful" in making rational choices.

    His new book, The Children's Act, will explore the issues of the family courts, and the heartbreaking decisions faced when parents insist their child must die for religious reasons.

    Speaking at the Oxford Literary Festival, McEwan used the examples of Jehovah's Witnesses who refused a blood transfusion for their son, and Catholic parents who insisted their conjoined twins must not be separated.

    His plot, finished only last week, will follow the judge's decision on whether to save the stronger twin at the expense of his dying brother.

    When asked whether he had learned anything from his time observing medical decisions in the family courts, he said: "I found generally that religion was distinctly unhelpful in making compassionate, reasonable judgments about people's lives.

    "On the whole, the secular mind seems far superior in making reasonable judgments.

    "Especially with the Jehovah's Witness, where parents allow their children to die because of some theological line invented in 1945 by a committee, seems to be utterly perverse and inhumane."

    His new novella, finished only last week, was inspired in part by real life cases presided over by his own friends who worked as judges.

    Speaking of his research in the family courts, McEwan told an audience he now believed the selfishness of some modern parents was ruining the interests of the children in their care.

    Referring to divorce, custody, and abuse cases, he said: "There is human tragedy unfolding every day in a rather commonplace way.

    "There's an almost consumerist notion that the pursuit of individual happiness cuts across the interests of children."

    An extract of the novel will reference children as "counters in a game, bargaining chips for use by mothers, objects of financial or emotional neglect by fathers", as well as the victims of "real, fantasised or cynically-invented charges of abuse usually by mothers, sometimes by fathers".

    The novel also describes "greedy husbands vs greedy wives, manoeuvring like nations at the end of a war, grabbing from the ruins what spoils they could before the final withdrawal".

    The title of the novel refers to the real Children's Act, which McEwan called a "remarkable and civilised piece of legislation".

    It rules: "When a court determines any questions with respect to the upbringing of a child, the child's welfare shall be the court's paramount consideration."

    In 1999, McEwan was the subject of a scandalous custody battle with his first wife over his two children. He was eventually awarded sole custody, after his estranged wife ran away with one of his sons to France in defiance of a court ruling and was fined for defamation.

    This is not the first time McEwan has shared his thoughts on the influence of religion on medical decisions.

    In 2011, he called for an overhaul of suicide laws to allow terminally ill patients to receive medical help to die. At the time, he urged Prime Minister David Cameron to ignore the "supernatural beliefs" of Christians and introduce new laws to end "unnecessary suffering".

    The novel, The Children's Act, is due out this autumn.

  • MMXIV
    MMXIV

    He has a significantly large readership and during his book tour (sold out at this week's Oxford literary festival highly publicised and sponsored by the Financial Times) he freely comments about the JW leaders having these terrible policies. This will be in the media and discussed in promotion of his book for the next year. It helps that he is a great author so I'm sure more than a few JW's will buy his next book.

    mmxiv

  • Band on the Run
    Band on the Run

    Judges are lawyers so the final decision maker is neutral. I don't go around asking the religious beliefs of judges.

    Someone posted photos from a WT devoted to all the underage children who died from the blood doctrine. It was very upsetting b/c they are so young. How did these children die? Why wasn't a family court judge called in? I don't believe a single photo I saw was of an older teen.

  • Giordano
    Giordano

    It gets worse BOTR http://www.cftf.com/comments/kidsdied.html

    "The feature articles on "Youths Who Put God First" fill the first fifteen pages of the May 22 Awake!--nearly half the issue. More than a third of this space is devoted to handsome, dimple-cheeked Adrian. The story relates cute anecdotes from his early childhood and reveals him to be a sensitive, intelligent, lovable boy anyone would be proud to have as a son.........

    ...........Fifteen-year-old Adrian Yeatts died September 13, 1993, after the Supreme Court of Newfoundland, Canada, declared him a "mature minor" and rejected the Child Welfare department's request for court-ordered transfusions. Twelve-year-old Lenae Martinez died in California on September 22, 1993, after the Valley Children's Hospital ethics committee ruled her a "mature minor" and decided not to seek a court order.

    Twelve-year-old Lisa Kosack died (no date given) in Canada after holding off transfusion therapy by threatening that she "would fight and kick the IV pole down and rip out the IV no matter how much it would hurt, and poke holes in the blood." (page 13)

    Adrian was fourteen when doctors found a fast-growing tumor in his stomach. A series of autopsies revealed a large lymphoma in his abdomen, plus evidence of leukemia in his bone marrow. Oncologist Dr. Lawrence Jardine at the Dr. Charles A. Janeway Child Health Centre in St. John's, Newfoundland, prescribed aggressive chemotherapy accompanied by blood transfusions. When it became clear that Adrian, at his parents' urging, refused the transfusions, child welfare workers went to court seeking protective custody.

    Watchtower lawyers produced a strongly worded signed affidavit from the teenager: "The way that I feel is that if I'm given any blood that will be like raping me, molesting my body. I don't want my body if that happens. I can't live with that. I don't want any treatment if blood is going to be used, even a possibility of it. I'll resist use of blood."

    On July 19 Justice Robert Wells of the Supreme Court of Newfoundland ruled the
    boy to be "a mature minor whose wish to receive medical treatment without blood
    or blood products is to be respected." ................ On September 12 a handful of Jehovah's Witnesses
    held a special service in the hospital's physiotherapy room and baptized Adrian
    in one of its steel tanks, thus officially inducting him into membership, and he
    died the next day.

    A battle continues to rage, however, as the Watchtower Society attempts to
    persuade medical and legal authorities to view JW kids in the
    12-through-17-year-old range as "mature minors" who should be allowed to die.

  • smiddy
    smiddy

    I hope his book gets wide media coverage . Maybe all of us here on this board can help promote it by letters to newspapers etc.in their book reveiws and the like.

    I fail to understand how the law can let a minor make such a life or death decision .Adults often change their minds over a period of time , children most definetly do .

    The WTB&TS `s "hands are covered in the blood of the innocents" and in these cases so is the legal profession .

    smiddy

  • jwfacts
    jwfacts

    Very interesting, thanks for posting.

  • LV101
    LV101

    Why weren't family court judges called in isn't a mystery - too many witnesses planted and working inside those hospitals to protect the evil watchtower's agenda. Child protective services need to be made aware and on guard for this.

    Where's the anti-watchtower blood group these days.

  • LV101
    LV101

    This is so distressing reading above the ruling of a 12-yr. old minor as mature. Brainwashed yes - mature no way nor educated. So much for hospital ethics committees.

    The mind control never leaves some. Know 2 ex-wits to this day insist one heals faster w/out blood transfusions (then they spout many other negatives which I don't listen to) and they're spouses both worked in hospitals. It is scary!

  • Watchtower-Free
    Watchtower-Free

    anyone can leave a comment on the article for the world to see

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