He's one of the many shareholders of WTBTS stock. Most don't realize the WTBTS is listed on the NASDAC like any other corporation & that many shareholders are not JW.
Lorenz Reibling gives interview about real estate
by OrphanCrow 162 Replies latest watchtower scandals
-
-
OrphanCrow
Edenone: ...If that connection could be established, it would be one hell of a 'smoking gun'.
I think that there could be smoking guns buried in the clinical trials that have been conducted historically using JWs as subjects.
A bit more about the Fluosol trials:
Clinical trials of Fluosol in the anemic Jehovahs Witness patient in the early 1980s led to a myriad of advances in bloodless medicine and surgery. Although Fluosol was not proven to be of significant benefit in treating surgical anemia, its failings helped us to redefine the role of temporary oxygen carriers and to focus on their correct potential use as transfusion alternatives.
Did the JWs who were given Fluosol in the 80s know that they were receiving the product as part of a clinical trial? Or did they just embrace the idea of "Whew! there IS something that might save my life! Isn't the HLC wonderful for 'helping' us?! This wonderful medical advance is Jehovah's blessing on us." How many family members signed the forms for "alternative treatment" with a sigh of relief that something could make them feel like they were trying to save their loved ones life...anything to make them feel less guilty about refusing blood? Did those JWs really know that they were part of clinical trials? The HLC and the WTS would have known - it would have been arranged with their cooperation and knowledge. What were the JWs who received Fluosol told about it?
-
Vidiot
OrphanCrow - "...Polyheme (is) not approved by the WTS because it is made from human blood..."
...but more importantly, it wasn't developed by the WTS's "bloodless" medical-industrial complex, and therefore doesn't bring the WTS any revenue stream.
Am I right?
-
Petraglyph
It makes sense to me now why Watchtower sold their Brooklyn properties at a low in the market. It's an easy way to transfer highly valuable equity out of the organisation into private hands at relatively low cost without any questions being asked. -
OrphanCrow
vidiot: Am I right?
Yes.
Just look to the procedures and/or products that are being pushed as "acceptable alternatives" and you will find JWs promoting those companies in their anti-blood campaigns. Haemonetics promotion has been mainstay of the blood management programs and bloodless surgery hospitals, and they in turn have sponsored societies like SABM.
Hemopure's history is entwined with WT approval of the bovine based blood substitute. The WTS is intimately involved in trying to arrange for its use in clinical trials sponsored by the US Army.
There is a hand in glove relationship between the blood management societies, the Watchtower Society, the WTS' Hospital Liaison people, and the biotech companies that are promoted by the WTS' antiblood industry. Much of the blood management and bloodless surgery history has been played out in FDA hearings over the years, and also in the classic standoff between the AMA and the osteopathic doctors that has been such an integral part of Watchtower history as well. The WTS' bloodless industry is solidly rooted in osteopathic medicine, promoted and practiced by JW doctors in JW owned hospitals.
What the WTS blood doctrine has done is force the medical and legal community, that struggles to deal with the religious paradox and ethical dilemmas that are dumped in their laps, to view them as a group of people with some kind of rare medical disorder.A JW patient is not normal - they have come to be viewed as having a rare kind of disease, leaving the medical field ripe for trying any and all potentials "cures" for the JW malady.
This has led to a huge problem - the JWs are a readily available group that are vulnerable to exploitation. And, in true form, the WTS has rose to the occasion and continues to keep their anti-blood doctrine alive and profitable. The anti-blood doctrine has become very valuable to the WTS and their associates. They have now moved into the global blood management market - a well planned move that dates back for many decades and now effects everybody world wide. Countries all over the world are adding to the WTS' coffers and they don't even know it.
Petraglyph: It makes sense to me now why Watchtower sold their Brooklyn properties at a low in the market. It's an easy way to transfer highly valuable equity out of the organisation into private hands at relatively low cost without any questions being asked.
It's so simple, isn't it?
-
Londo111
http://www.freeminds.org/history/quackery.htm
http://ajwrb.org/quack-medicine
Speaking of osteopathy...this reminds me how even before the blood ban, there were all sorts of medical alternatives espoused, many times advertized in Watchtower publications. Early on waking up, I was especially amazed to learn about Electronic Radio Biola that was promoted during the 20's.
-
Vidiot
OrphanCrow - "What the WTS blood doctrine has done is force the medical and legal community... to view them as a group of people with some kind of rare medical disorder."
Well, if the shoe fits...
-
OrphanCrow
Londo: http://www.freeminds.org/history/quackery.htm
http://ajwrb.org/quack-medicine
Speaking of osteopathy...this reminds me how even before the blood ban, there were all sorts of medical alternatives espoused, many times advertized in Watchtower publications. Early on waking up, I was especially amazed to learn about Electronic Radio Biola that was promoted during the 20's.Those are both good links for a look at the WTS' wacky medical views.
A few years back, i looked a little deeper into the medical history of the chiros and osteopaths and their links to the WTS. At that time, I was still unclear as to the origins of the bloodless movement in the States, but I have researched more, and now say that without doubt, the bloodless industry came up through the ranks of the medical practitioners who opposed the AMA - the osteopaths in the 70s in California. Ron Lapin et al - who practiced his brand of bloodless surgery at a hospital owned by a JW osteopathic doctor, and staffed with JWs - was responsible for propelling the bloodless industry from its shadow existence in Canada in the 70s and into the American limelight in the 80s.
Religious movements and medical movements are intricately intertwined in the late 19th and early 20th century American history. If a more thorough look at the history of medical influences in the WTS interests you, this thread has some of my research and links to the history of chiros and osteopaths:
-
OrphanCrow
Edenone: If indeed the blood ban doctrine of the Jehovah's Witnesses is serving the interests of the JW-driven blood management industry since 1945, then, I wonder if the latest significant shift in the blood doctrine, namely, the acceptance of blood fractions, has had a corresponding move from the blood management industry?
The demands of medical research is reflected in recent doctrinal changes. Ever wonder why the WTS now says that accepting blood is "a conscience matter"?
The clue to the doctrinal shift can be found in the FDA hearings on Hemopure. At that hearing, the Army doctor is making the case that the JWs would make an excellent group to test Hemopure on, because they don't have to abide by the RESUS model that the army does. But, the panel at the FDA were quick to point to the failures of the Fluosol trials that used only JWs. The flaw in that kind of testing is that it doesn't allow for randomized sampling, and is of little benefit for extrapolating to the larger population.
In other words, the JW group needed variance within it. Some of them had to accept blood - just like the rest of the population - in order for the data collected to be reliable and usable. A group made up entirely of no blood subjects has little use in the scientific world except to test the limits of procedure - to see if they die or not. Or to push a questionable procedure/product to market.
-
EdenOne
Question:
"Hemopure" is being advertised as a product by a company called OPK Biotech LLC. (see Wikipaedia) This company has a suspiciously simple wordpress website for the promotion of Hemopure. There is an address: OPK Biotech LLC, 11 Hurley Street, Cambridge, MA 02141 USA.
But the main website (www.opkbiotech.com) is apparently shut down.
Reading the following information from Bloomberg business website about OPK Biotech returns the following:
"OPK Biotech, LLC was incorporated in 2009 and is based in Delaware. On April 25, 2014, an involuntary petition for liquidation under Chapter 7 was filed against OPK Biotech, LLC in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Massachusetts. On May 20, 2014, the involuntary petition was approved by the Court."
Is this the same company? Who is now responsible for promoting Hemopure after all? Who is behind the apparently defunct OPK Biotech but keeps promoting their products?
Edited to add:
There is a name: Gerald "Jerry" Kowalski, was, by 2011, CEO of OPK Biotech. On LinkedIn he is now presented as CEO of Hemoglobin Oxygen Therapeutics. So, clearly, the same R&D field as OPK Biotech.
New Edit: Found it! This new company is called HbO2 Therapeutics and has an official website, that lists Hemopure and Oxyglobin among their product lineup. This company is now based out of Souderton, PA. Clearly, this company inherited the legacy from OPK Biotech via its CEO, Gerald / Jerry Kowalski. On second thought, it appears that most of the current management of HbO2 was in the original Biopure corporation and then in the OPK Biotech. Why does this company keep morphing?
BTW - Hemopure isn't FDA approved for use in the US, but apparently is being used in South Africa.
Curious bit of information: On the footnote of the webpage that discusses clinical case studies, the following statement is found:
OPK Biotech SA Pty Ltd notes that use of Hemopure® is not endorsed by any religious organization and that each patient makes their own highly personal decision as to what medical treatment is acceptable to them or not.
I'm wondering if all clinical cases described involved South African JW's.
Eden