I may have found a clue to Watchtower's sudden reversal on organ transplants

by ILoveTTATT2 25 Replies latest jw friends

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  ILoveTTATT2

  I have read countless times in this site and others that there is speculation that someone high up in the Watchtower world required an organ transplant, and then because of that, their position that they had held since 1967 changed in 1980.
  
  I believe I have found a clue to who that person might have been. I leave it to the exJW community to investigate further, but it's tantalizing!
  
  It is waay too much of a coincidence that:
  
  Lee Cordaway got a phone call in January 1980 that his kidneys were failing. Lee was 18 years old at the time.
  
  Watchtower printed its "organ transplants are allowed now" article in March 1980.

  January 1981: Lee goes into the organ donor list for new kidneys.
  
  August 1981: Lee receives his new kidney.
  
  September 1981: Lee's new kidney is rejected, he has to have it removed. Lee goes on dialysis.

  1987: Lee starts getting (synthetic) EPO.

  1994: Watchtower publishes an article saying that EPO is a conscience matter.
  
  Circa 1996: Lee dies from complications of kidney disease.
  
  See his life story in the Awake of November 22, 1996:

  *** g96 11/22 p. 11 ‘It’s Only Temporary!’—My Life With Kidney Disease ***

  ‘It’s Only Temporary!’—My Life With Kidney Disease

  
  I believe that this HAS to be THE person for which the "organ transplants are now allowed" article was printed.
  
  Does anyone know who he is? Did he have any relation to the heavyweights in Bethel in 1980?
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  doubtfull1799

  The problem with that theory is there is usually up to a 6 month lead time on when decisions are made as to what articles go in the magazines, and the articles afr3e often prepared long in advance of that. So that article on organ transplants was almost certainly prepared long before the Jan 1980 date that the person found out they needed a transplant.
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  ILoveTTATT2

  Maybe.
  
  He knew something was up in 1979... but didn´t confirm his kidneys were failing until Jan 1980.
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  Crazyguy

  I did hear a rumor that the restriction was lifted because someone at bethel was in need, but of course only a rumor.
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  Nevuela

  How could he be "high up" in the organization if he was only 18 at the time?
  
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  slimboyfat

  Why do you call it a sudden reversal in 1980?

  If I remember correctly the organ ban had not been mentioned for a while in the literature leading up to the 1980 reversal.
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  Vanderhoven7

  Interesting that there are 12 times more white blood cells in organs than in the bloodstream and that millions of white blood cells are transferred when organs are transplanted.
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  ILoveTTATT2

  Nevuela, I didn't say that he was the heavyweight... my take is that he was the son or a relative of some heavyweight.

  SBF, nope. Right down to the end of 1979 they were talking about how horrible transplants were, and then in March 1980 was the reversal.

  Thank you for making me investigate that, it makes my case even stronger that it was changed FOR someone's sake, and I believe that it was for Lee.
• 

  OrphanCrow

  Kidney transplants on Jehovah's Witness patients started in 1979, two years previous to Lee's kidney transplant and a year before the WT's shift in position on organ transplants.

  A single-center experience of renal transplantation in thirteen Jehovah's Witnesses.

  
  

  Abstract

  
  The beneficial effects of pretransplant blood transfusions on the success rate of renal transplantation have been so overwhelmingly emphasized that there is virtually no information on the fate of grafts in nontransfused patients transplanted during the last decade. Since 1979, all patients who have undergone renal transplantation at the University of Minnesota have routinely received random blood transfusions except Jehovah's Witnesses. Jehovah's Witnesses refuse transfusions but will accept renal allografts. From 1979 to May 30, 1987, primary renal allografts were placed in thirteen nontransfused Jehovah's Witnesses; six patients received kidneys from mismatched living-related donors, two patients received HLA-identical sibling grafts, and five patients received cadaveric renal allografts. The range of follow-up of the thirteen patients was 3-93 months, with a mean of 45 months and a median of 50 months. The outcomes after renal transplantation in Jehovah's Witnesses were compared with those of a paired control group (n = 25) matched for age, date of transplant, donor source, and diabetic status. The overall three-year actuarial patient and graft survival rates of the Jehovah's Witnesses were 83 per cent and 66 per cent, versus 80 per cent and 77 per cent for the controls. Although the outcomes after renal transplantation in Jehovah's Witnesses were similar to those of the control group, the Jehovah's Witnesses had an increased susceptibility to rejection episodes. The cumulative percentage of incidence of primary rejection episodes was 77 per cent at three months in the Jehovah's Witnesses versus 44 per cent at 21 months in the matched control group. The consequence of early allograft dysfunction from rejection was particularly detrimental to Jehovah's Witnesses who developed severe anemia (hemoglobin (Hgb)* 4.5 g per cent)-two early deaths occurred in the subgroup with this combination of problems. The overall results suggest that renal transplantation can be safely and efficaciously applied to most Jehovah's Witnesses but those with anemia who undergo early rejection episodes are a high-risk group relative to other transplant patients.

  The organ transplant reversal was only published in the Watchtower after it was already taking place in the medical world.

  This is the common theme when comparing timelines between medical journals and the developments in the blood industry - the procedures that the WT has approved over the years always follow after the procedure has already been done on JWs.

  Other examples are hemodilution and cell salvage - both were being done on JWs for years before the WT announced any kind of "official" approval.

  And another comment about the significance of the year 1979 - that was the year that the current Hospital Liaison Committees were being formed. The WT was well aware that JW patients were getting kidney transplants - the WT was involved in arranging those transplants.

  *edit to add: Lee wasn't the first JW to get a kidney transplant - he was just one of those medical subjects used in the above study. I don't think it was any JW in particular that needed a kidney that made the WT shift their stance - it was the financial benefits that the org would have received for directing and organizing the experimental group for that study that was the impetus.
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  ILoveTTATT2

  Awww. Popped my bubble. I really thought I had found something hahaha.
  
  But thank you for noting that, I have to check in the WT if they actually published the dates, because that paragraph of the study I have seen it in WT publications.
  
  ...
  
  OK I checked, and... yeah, no dates! I'll have to look into THIS further, because it IS scandalous!
  
  

  *** g89 2/22 p. 29 Watching the World ***

  Bloodless Transplants

  A recent study found that kidney transplant recipients who did not receive blood transfusions prior to surgery had survival and organ function rates similar to those of kidney patients who did receive transfusions. Researchers at the University of Minnesota compared Jehovah’s Witnesses, who refused blood transfusions for religious reasons, to a control group of non-Jehovah’s Witnesses who received kidneys along with transfusions. Their findings were published in the June 1988 issue of Transplantation.

  
  *** hb p. 16 Quality Alternatives to Transfusion ***The conscience of some Witnesses permits them to accept organ transplants if done without blood. A report of 13 kidney transplants concluded: “The overall results suggest that renal transplantation can be safely and efficaciously applied to most Jehovah’s Witnesses.” (Transplantation, June 1988) Likewise, refusal of blood has not stood in the way even of successful heart transplants.