Watchtower Victims Memorial

The Watchtower Victims Memorial is dedicated to the memory of Jehovah's Witnesses and their minor children who died as a result of the Brooklyn-based Watchtower Bible and Tract Society's decrees banning blood transfusions, organ transplants, skin grafts, and vaccinations -- as well as other individuals whose deaths due to suicide, abandonment, etc., are attributable to the Watchtower Society in the view of surviving loved ones.

More about Lenae Martinez

Twelve-year-old Lenae Martinez died September 22, 1993, in California after the Valley Children's Hospital ethics committee ruled her a "mature minor" and decided not to seek court-ordered transfusions.

Her photo appears prominently here (center left) on the front cover of the May 22, 1994 Awake! magazine.

The feature articles on "Youths Who Put God First" fill the first fifteen pages -- nearly half the issue.

The caption for Lenae's cover photo states that "thousands of youths died for putting God first" in "former times" and adds that "they are still doing it, only today the drama is played out in hospitals and courtrooms, with blood transfusions the issue." Nowhere, though, do the articles specify exactly which "former times" are referred to. (AWAKE! May 22, 1994, page 2) Nor are any statistics provided on whether the number of Jehovah's Witness youths dying "todayŠwith blood transfusions the issue" similarly runs into the thousands, or not.

1000's died -- May 22, 1994 AWAKE! page 2