Re: Jehovah's witnesses
From: art fougner, md (evsono@pipeline.com)
Thu Jan 10 12:14:10 2002
well said Malcolm -
while we may disagree ( not an unusual phenomenon) i totally respect
your experience and this is of course not the forum for missionary
conversion.
art
At Thu, 10 Jan 2002, Griffiths Malcolm wrote:
>
>I have resisted entering this debate, but I assume that the poster is a
>Witness and not an Ob/Gyn. If I am correct can I please remind you that the
>strict rule of this group is that it is open only to ob/gyn and related
>professionals to post to this list.
>
>I very much respect your position (probably more than other list members). I
>have personally met a number of HLC members and have had hundreds of Witness
>patients. It may be that some doctors are opinionated or misinformed, but
>this forum is not the place to re-educate them. With respect please no
>postings from non-professionals and no replies to such postings. That was
>the rule wasn't it?
>
>Malcolm Griffiths
>Clinical director & consultant - obstetrics & gynaecology
>Luton & Dunstable Hospital NHS Trust, Luton, LU4 0DZ, UK
>Tel:+(44) 1582 497533 Fax: +(44) 1582 497376
>
> -----Original Message-----
>From: mbwjg@sneakemail.com [mailto:mbwjg@sneakemail.com]
>Sent: 10 January 2002 17:14
>To: Multiple recipients of list OB-GYN-L
>Subject: Re: Jehovah's witnesses
>
>At Thu, 10 Jan 2002, Eberhard Lisse wrote:
>>
>>Those zealot Committees are the plague through, the vigourously
>>pressurize the witnesses to conform.
>>
>This is a very broad statement which can hardly be substantiated in its
>generality. In 230 lands there are more than 1,000 HLC's composed of
>over 5,000 individuals - may I respectfully ask how many of those you
>have met?
>
>Hospital Liaison Committees exist to assist Witnesses to obtain
>non-blood medical management not to make Witnesses go against their own
>consciences. The conscience of each Witness IS respected, as is bourne
>out by the information circulated amongst Witnesses [*]as to current
>medical practice, such as intra-operative cell salvage, Anti-D,
>hemodilution, dialysis, etc and the need to make a decision on whether
>or not such would be acceptable to them (e.g. in completing the
>"Advance Healthcare Directive" Form). If someone deliberately and
>without regret decided to accept blood or any of the primary components
>he/she would be viewed as having withdrawn from the Witness Faith. We
>do not believe you can force someone to obey God, obedience comes from
>the heart.
>
>I suppose Witnesses could talk of Doctors who are "zealots" in trying to
>gain signed agreement from sedated patients being wheeled to the OR but
>that would not present the true picture and would do nothing to cement
>the Doctor/Patient relationship, which should be one of mutual repect
>and trust.
>
>[Posted with respect and a desire to bring about understanding and
>cooperation between both Doctor and Witness patient].
>
>[*] For example see "Watchower" June 15th 2000
--
art fougner, md
ich bin ein New Yorker
