WATCHTOWER

This cutting edge legal essay critically examines one of the religion’s main publications dedicated to the blood doctrine, How Can Blood Save Your Life?. How Can Blood Save Your Life? dedicates pages to the thoughts of secular writers on the benefits of abstaining from blood. As late as December 2005, the Watchtower Society’s Kingdom Ministry recommended that its followers use How Can Blood Save Your Life to teach their children about the blood doctrine in order that their children will be able to articulate their stance in court. The essay details the misrepresentations in How Can Blood Save Your Life, by analyzing the following quotes against the original author’s (or court’s) words to determine if they are taken out of context to the point of creating a dishonest secular argument that bolsters the Watchtower Society's religious belief.

Writers:

· Joseph Priestley, The Theological and Miscellaneous Works of Joseph Priestley, vol. 2,

· Eusebius of Ceasarea, The Ecclesiastical History, Book V

· Tertullian’s The Apology of Tertullian—Chapter IX” (Merton College, Oxford for Parker & Co 1890);

· Paul J. Voogt et. al., “Perioperative Blood Transfusion and Cancer Prognosis,” Cancer

· John S. Spratt, MD, “Blood Transfusions and Surgery for Cancer,” The American Journal of Surgery

· Tarter, “Blood transfusion and infectious complication following colorectal cancer surgery,” 790

· Lawrence Altman, MD, “Lyme Disease from a Transfusion? It’s Unlikely, but Experts are Wary,” New York Times,

· Lawrence Altman, M.D., “Scientist Fear that a Paras! ite Will Spread in Transfusion” New York Times

· Lawrence Altman, MD., “Quandary for Patients: Have Surgery, or Await Test for Hepatitis C?” New York Times,

· Bruce Lambert, “4 Cases Found of Rare Strain of AIDS Virus—Standard Test Fail to Detect the HIV-2,” New York Times

· Jerry Kolins, MD and Leo J. McCarthy, MD, Contemporary Transfusion Practice (American Association of Blood Banks 1987)

· Kolins, MD and McCarthy, MD, Contemporary Transfusion Practice

· P.J. Howell and P.A. Bamber, “Severe acute anaemia in a Jehovah Witness,” Anaesthesia

· James A. Stockman III, MD., “Anemia of Prematurity Current Concepts in the Issue of When to Transfuse,” Pediatric Clinics of North America

· Dixon B. Kaufman, “A Single-Center Experience of Renal Transplantation in Thirteen Jehovah Witnesses,” Transplantation

Court Cases

· Parham v. J.R., 442 U.S. 584 (1979) (US Supreme Court).

· In re Hofbauer, 47 N.Y. 2d 648 at 655 (NY Ct. of Appeal 1979) (New York’s Highest Court)

The essay, “Jehovah’s Witnesses, Blood Transfusions, and the Tort of Misrepresentation” does not stop here, but furthers by critically analyzing the Watchtower Society’s current blood policy misrepresentations surrounding the scope of allowed blood products, including hemoglobin and Factor VIII, and autologous blood transfusions, an issue that www.ajwrb.org has repeatedly shown.

The essay’s author, Attorney Kerry Louderback-Wood, wrote this essay after the loss of her elderly mother due, in part, to the Watchtower Society’s blood doctrine. She dedicates the essay to all the children who were harmed by the Watchtower Society’s blood policy! She wrote this essay in the hopes of saving one life. Like the first tobacco cases and Catholic church sex scandal cases, Kerry Louderback-Wood does not expect the first Jehovah’s Witness blood case to easily win. But, this essay is meant to look at where the law could go, if the State were to hold the Watchtower Society’s “freedom to misquote secular material” over the very lives of its citizens.

This essay is a must read for anyone facing the blood issue; including followers, doctors, and legal professionals. You may order your essay, “Jehovah’s Witnesses, Blood Transfusions, and the Tort of Misrepresentation” though the Journal of Church and State.


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