Posts by John Davis

103

New Research at AJWRB

by Lee Elder in

the latest research article published at ajwrb estimates the number of jehovah's witnesses who have died from following or being coerced to follow watchtower's blood policy.

the numbers are staggering.

http://ajwrb.org/jehovahs-witnesses-and-blood-tens-of-thousands-dead-in-hidden-tragedy.

Bear in mind, you are reviewing the work of one of the best experts in this entire field. An author who has been published more times in peer reviewed medical journals than anyone else on this matter. Dr. Muramoto has produced a very, very conservative estimate which is precisely why we use it. It completely ignores all deaths related to the three primary causes of morbidity in JW's related to the blood issue.

What are his credentials? What can be read on BMJ is 2 articles from the journal on medical ethics. What other papers has he written and what subjects did he write on? What is he board certified in? Is the doctor a Hematologist, Cardiologist, Thoracic Surgeon, a Hospitalist?

103

New Research at AJWRB

by Lee Elder in

the latest research article published at ajwrb estimates the number of jehovah's witnesses who have died from following or being coerced to follow watchtower's blood policy.

the numbers are staggering.

http://ajwrb.org/jehovahs-witnesses-and-blood-tens-of-thousands-dead-in-hidden-tragedy.

John Davis

TD you use examples such as Hodgkin's Lymphoma and AML as your examples as to why the number offered by Lee Elder is low and that it is probably higher.

While yes both disease progression would require a blood transfusion in order to treat and possibly cure. The ratio of people with these two diseases is extremely low. For AML it is 0.5 percent of the population and for Hodgkins, it is only 204,000 people in the US with that disease for a population of 300 Million people. So yes if you add these people in that would increase the number of preventable deaths but you cannot use that to correlate the numbers that Lee Elder is attempting to bring out.

So yes if you add these people in that would increase the number of preventable deaths but you cannot use that to correlate the numbers that Lee Elder is attempting to bring out. it is a sensationalized number. It could be very high but no one knows what the actual number or no reputable journal would present a paper like this in their publication because there are too many factors not included in order to come to an educated estimate.

Lee Elder: You stated that you had presented this at a conference, but you didn't state what conference it was? was there any push back on what was presented?

103

New Research at AJWRB

by Lee Elder in

the latest research article published at ajwrb estimates the number of jehovah's witnesses who have died from following or being coerced to follow watchtower's blood policy.

the numbers are staggering.

http://ajwrb.org/jehovahs-witnesses-and-blood-tens-of-thousands-dead-in-hidden-tragedy.

John Davis

TD I completely agree with you that the original study did not include emergency situations or forms of cancer or rarer blood disorders. But that doesn't mean that Lee Elder's methodology isn't flawed. To have come up with a true estimate he would have had to consider a number of other factors, just a few of them:

Percentage of use of blood transfusions in the following scenarios:

Emergency Situations

Perioperative

Uses within Oncology diagnosis

Uses within haematology diagnosis

Then you would have to look at how common these diseases and forms of blood cancer are. Is it 1 in 1000 or 1 in 10,000

What is the rate of emergency care that hospital protocol would initiate a blood transfusion? For instance, in a 5 person car accident would it be necessary for all 5 people to receive a blood transfusion or 1 of them or none of them.

These are just 3 examples of questions that would need to be answered for a real estimate.

Ruby, I agree with you on your issues with the methodology that was used for this essay on AJWRB. The study that was used showed a range from actually 0 increase in morbid and mortality issues, for certain classifications of procedures, all the way up to 1.5% increase for cardiovascular procedures.

So yes a conservative number of 1% for cardiovascular procedures is correct. But then you say that because the Blood Bank Association says that 4 million people in the US need a blood

And yes, the math does show that for every 1000 people in the US 150 of them need a blood transfusion a year.

Though you then try and correlate a 1% increase in mortality for all procedures that blood could possibly be used. That is not a fair assessment of the original author's intention. While yes for certain procedures the mortality would be higher without a blood transfusion that is not all of the procedures that were even listed in the original study. The author even states this in his conclusion:

"The impact on the overall morbidity and mortality is not known; such a study would take decades of observation with large numbers of randomized patients and is unlikely to ever be done. Patients now often question the risk."

103

New Research at AJWRB

by Lee Elder in

the latest research article published at ajwrb estimates the number of jehovah's witnesses who have died from following or being coerced to follow watchtower's blood policy.

the numbers are staggering.

http://ajwrb.org/jehovahs-witnesses-and-blood-tens-of-thousands-dead-in-hidden-tragedy.

John Davis

I was just reading the essay written by Kerry Louderback-Wood entitled Jehovah's Witnesses, Blood Transfusions and the Tort of Misrepresentation. This was written in 2014 and published by AJWRB on their website. She makes some interesting points as to how to some civil strategies to sue Watchtower over this. I am not sure how much of those would hold up in court. But then it raises the question, with all of these cases that are out there how has she not found one plaintiff to use as a test case for her theories.

103

New Research at AJWRB

by Lee Elder in

the latest research article published at ajwrb estimates the number of jehovah's witnesses who have died from following or being coerced to follow watchtower's blood policy.

the numbers are staggering.

http://ajwrb.org/jehovahs-witnesses-and-blood-tens-of-thousands-dead-in-hidden-tragedy.

John Davis

Dundedain:

What do you want people to sue Watchtower over? Ultimately it is the person's choice if they want to obey that policy or not. Can a Catholic who views abortion is murder no matter what the circumstances, can they sue the Catholic church if they die from a condition that could have been resolved by an abortion? No, we all have to be responsible for our own choices.

In fact someone tried to sue, not watchtower but tried to sue the hospital to force that they give their husband a blood transfusion. The wife filed suit saying that if her husband died because of not being given a blood transfusion that she and her son would become destitute as he was the only worker in the family. A lower court granted the application so that they would have to give a blood transfusion, but it went to the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico and the court there ruled that each person has autonomy over their own body and they can choose what they want to accept or deny.