The Watchtower's Medical Bible - the HLC handbook

by rebel8 12 Replies latest watchtower medical

  • OrphanCrow
    OrphanCrow
    Pistoff: Is there evidence of money going to WT or SABM from the military or the government?

    I have never found conclusive evidence that says "...this amount of money was paid to this person/entity..." But, I don't expect to find the financial transactions between government agencies and the WT. The WT's financial statements are not transparent and I would not expect that the US Army's financial transactions are transparent either.

    However, I operate on the assumption that nothing gets done without money trading hands, especially when you are looking at large entities doing business together. Of course there is money involved. It is the way the world works.

    Anders: So Witnesses who are farmers are not allowed to use blood as a fertilizer for their crops, but Witnesses working in SABM are allowed to 'advance blood management'? 'Managing blood' is something different from not using blood at all...
    Regardless of WT Society involvement, shouldn't every Witness working for SABM DFed?

    Yes, blood "management" is different than noblood ever. But the WT has sidestepped the issue of JW medical professionals being involved in administering blood transfusions way back in the 90s sometime. One of the "questions to readers" gave the response that it is acceptable for a JW doctor/nurse to give blood products in the course of their work.

    As far as "disfellowshipping" those blood 'professionals'....what I would rather see instead is a mandatory disclosure for all those who work in the blood management field to have to disclose their affiliation with the Watchtower. If you are a JW, you are affiliated with the guys in the Tower - all JWs obey the directives from the WT.

    If someone is in charge of making decisions about the use of blood, it only stands to reason that having a religious affiliation to a religion that BANS blood for their members is an important disclosure.

    A few years back, an Australian journalist exposed Shannon Farmer and Axel Hoffman - the JWs who were responsible for implementing blood management for the entire country of Australia - as being JWs. Neither one of them revealed their affiliations with pharma companies or that they were JWs. Since that time, Farmer and Hoffman are more transparent about their pharma sponsors but neither one of them are transparent about being JWs who don't use blood themselves.

    Full disclosure of medical professionals who are JWs is the most beneficial course that could be taken. If I am experiencing a medical dilemma, I want to know that the guidelines that the doctor is following are put in place by people other than JWs.

    The 'world' knows the JWs as that strange little religion that refuses blood transfusions and once in a while, that refusal makes the news and everyone is suitably upset. But they are not that upset - after all...if those nutty JWs want to die, that is their choice. However, what the 'world' is not aware of is that those same JWs, directed by the WT, are setting the standards for EVERYONE'S blood needs.

  • OrphanCrow
    OrphanCrow

    Thanks, Listener. It's good to know that this info is both read and appreciated.

    :)

    As far as "deep research" goes, let's go a little deeper.

    The 10 pdfs that were linked to in the OP are an accumulation of decades of work by the Watchtower. When they first started their publishing of 'alternatives to blood transfusions', their volumes were tiny in comparison and they didn't just include the abstracts of medical studies - the early volumes included the entire studies.

    This is the 1973 version directed at pediatric care (not sure if this was distributed anywhere other than Canada - the birthplace of the HLC - Canada was where the HLC was piloted back in the 70s):

    The document that existed in 2001 is substantially larger than the 1973 version.

    Let's go deeper andtake a look at 2001 and what was happening in the world of blood alternatives.

    In 2000, the Watchtower "allowed" fractions of blood and gave their approval for blood made from cow's blood - Hemopure.

    In 2001, SABM was formed, comprised of medical professionals and JWs like Shannon Farmer, Richard Melseth. Edward Blakeley, Jan Wade, Sherri Ozawa, Axel Hoffman, Sharon Vernon....and more (can't remember all their names at the moment).

    In 2002, the Watchtower Society received the president's award for SABM.

    I recently found some information that is farther afield - outside the realm of doctrine and such...to add some context to what was really going on with the JWs during that time - and who was actually deciding what the JWs could and could not have for blood products. I have previously posted information from the FDA concerning Hemopure/JWs/military and this information comes from the FDA as well, but it is from a few years earlier - 2002.

    This link will take you to several documents relating to the FDA hearings for hydroxyethyl starch, the substance connected to Dr. Boldt's research that has been redacted for fraudulent data. http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/ac/02/briefing/3867oph1.htm

    Areyh Shander, the hero of bloodless surgery, whose base is Englewood Hospital in New Jersey, corresponded with the FDA concerning the use of Hextan and said this in a letter dated May 2002: "...As presented in the attached, SABM has been working with the US military to develop recommendations for fluid resuscitation strategies. Hetastarch products, in particular Hextend, play a key role in those recommendations."

    So. That is pretty clear. SABM, a society with LOTS of JWs olding membership in that blood society, worked with the US military.

    The attachment that Shander refers to gives more detail.

    The Society for the Advancement of Blood Management is a co-sponsor of meetings known as STORMACT (Strategies TO Reduce Military And Civilian Transfusions). There have been five meetings of STORMACT since October of 2001 held at the behest of US military medical leaders seeking optimal resuscitation management strategies, including those of immediate concern on the battlefield. This document is a summary of a working draft to be published later this year by physicians concerned with fluid management and resuscitation.

    Shander goes on to make this statement:

    We employ aggressive colloid therapies using hydroxyethyl starches (Hextend exclusively).

    STORMACT, with Shander as spokeperson, was making a plea to the FDA be able to continue using a problematic substance (from Boldt's fraudulent research) to support the research that they do for the US military. And who are the patients that Shander uses this starch on? That are so important to the US military?

    Well...read the following article:

    http://www.thefreelibrary.com/BioTime+Optimistic+as+Its+Pro…

    ...a STORMACT symposium held at the Brooke Army Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston, Texas in May 2002. STORMACT was founded in direct response to the events of September 11. It consists of a team of nationally recognized civilian experts in blood usage reduction and of volunteer experts in the United States Army, Navy and Air Force created to address the problem of how to limit blood usage in war or disaster situations. The meeting was sponsored by the Society for the Advancement of Blood Management (SABM).

    So, Jehovah's Witnesses like Melseth, Farmer, Ozawa, Wade, et al...sponsored STORMACT - how to limit blood usage for military purposes.

    What a perfect fit - JW patients testing for the military on how to limit blood use. Such a sweet and often unattainable thing in medical research - a baseline measurement of death. With the consent of the patient! The perfect complement for the RESUS research the military was conducting:

    In the April 2002 issue of the Canadian Journal of Anesthesia, an article appeared entitled "Multidisciplinary management of a Jehovah's witness patient for the removal of a renal cell carcinoma extending into the right atrium." The article was authored by Dr. David M. Moskowitz, Dr. Aryeh Shander and their colleagues at New Jersey's Englewood Hospital and Medical Center. Dr. Shander is a member of the STORMACT team and the STORMACT symposium faculty. During the procedure Hextend was used as part of a surgical protocol in which a kidney tumor was removed which had grown up into the vascular system and heart of a Jehovah's witness. The patient's treatment involved acute normovolemic hemodilution (ANH), followed by the induction of deep hypothermia and 27 minutes of cardiac arrest, during which the tumor was removed. ANH involves the replacement of a portion of the blood volume with a surgical fluid, and collection of a similar amount of the patient's blood to be returned when needed at a later stage in the procedure. ANH is of interest to researchers looking to minimize the use of blood in treating combat casualties.

    And now we know why the Watchtower Society received the SABM president's award in 2002. They were supplying subjects for military research - facilitated by Jehovah's Witnesses themselves - the ones who are 'helping' those poor unfortunates who can't take blood and live. Helping the JW trauma victims who have to refuse the one thing that will let them live - red blood cells.

    JW trauma victim = combat casualty.

  • OrphanCrow
    OrphanCrow
    Pistoff: Is there evidence of money going to WT or SABM from the military or the government?

    I have never found conclusive evidence that says "...this amount of money was paid to this person/entity..." But, I don't expect to find the financial transactions between government agencies and the WT. The WT's financial statements are not transparent and I would not expect that the US Army's financial transactions are transparent either.

    However, I operate on the assumption that nothing gets done without money trading hands, especially when you are looking at large entities doing business together. Of course there is money involved. It is the way the world works.

    Anders: So Witnesses who are farmers are not allowed to use blood as a fertilizer for their crops, but Witnesses working in SABM are allowed to 'advance blood management'? 'Managing blood' is something different from not using blood at all...
    Regardless of WT Society involvement, shouldn't every Witness working for SABM DFed?

    Yes, blood "management" is different than noblood ever. But the WT has sidestepped the issue of JW medical professionals being involved in administering blood transfusions way back in the 90s sometime. One of the "questions to readers" gave the response that it is acceptable for a JW doctor/nurse to give blood products in the course of their work.

    As far as "disfellowshipping" those blood 'professionals'....what I would rather see instead is a mandatory disclosure for all those who work in the blood management field to have to disclose their affiliation with the Watchtower. If you are a JW, you are affiliated with the guys in the Tower - all JWs obey the directives from the WT.

    If someone is in charge of making decisions about the use of blood, it only stands to reason that having a religious affiliation to a religion that BANS blood for their members is an important disclosure.

    A few years back, an Australian journalist exposed Shannon Farmer and Axel Hoffman - the JWs who were responsible for implementing blood management for the entire country of Australia - as being JWs. Neither one of them revealed their affiliations with pharma companies or that they were JWs. Since that time, Farmer and Hoffman are more transparent about their pharma sponsors but neither one of them are transparent about being JWs who don't use blood themselves.

    Full disclosure of medical professionals who are JWs is the most beneficial course that could be taken. If I am experiencing a medical dilemma, I want to know that the guidelines that the doctor is following are put in place by people other than JWs.

    The 'world' knows the JWs as that strange little religion that refuses blood transfusions and once in a while, that refusal makes the news and everyone is suitably upset. But they are not that upset - after all...if those nutty JWs want to die, that is their choice. However, what the 'world' is not aware of is that those same JWs, directed by the WT, are setting the standards for EVERYONE'S blood needs.

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