When the Watchtower organization first introduced its doctrine against blood transfusion in 1944 there was immediate push-back from within the community of Jehovah’s Witnesses.[1]
In response the religion’s leaders trotted out a statement from Encyclopedia Americana (1929 ed.) repeating a story that Pope Innocent VIII was the first reported case of a blood transfusion.[2]
In its zeal to inculcate Jehovah’s Witnesses against blood transfusion, the Watchtower organization has repeated this story on numerous occasions.[3-4]
Is the story sound?
As demonstrated by Encyclopedia Americana, the Watchtower organization is not the only source to have cited Pope Innocent VIII as the first reported case of blood transfusion. But then, the non-Watchtower sources have not laid claim to being the voice of God.[5] Regardless, because this story has been so widely published it was investigated by medical historians for veracity.
In 1954 author Gerrit Arie Lindeboom, MD, PhD (founder of the Medical Encyclopedia Institute in Amsterdam) thoroughly researched the question and determined the supposed transfusion of blood was made up.[6]
In year 1991 author A. Matthew Gottlieb, PhD furthered research on the question concluding the story is a distortion.[7]
In year 2006 author Robert M. Winslow, MD expressed the report was not of the first human to be transfused but was, rather, a romantic story.[8]
Zeal for truth?
In year 2009 the Watchtower organization posed the question to young people “How can youths demonstrate their zeal for the truth?”[9]
Perhaps the question should be asked to Watchtower’s leadership: How can you demonstrate zeal for truth?
My recommendation is that Watchtower publish a retraction of the fable about Pope Innocent VIII receiving a blood transfusion so the community of Jehovah’s Witnesses is not distracted by unsound information. For that matter, what is the "voice of God" doing publishing such bad information in the first place?
While Watchtower's at it, they might as well go ahead and retract the gobbledygook about ancient Egyptians transfusing blood.
It is as expressed so well by author TJ Greenwalt[10]:
Marvin Shilmer
______________
References
2. The Watchtower, July 1, 1945, p. 200.
3. Blood, Medicine and the Law of God, published by Watchtower, 1961, p. 12.
4. Awake, published by Watchtower, September 8, 1986, pp. 26-27.
6. Lindeboom, The Story of a Blood Transfusion to a Pope, Journal of the History of Medicine, October 1954, pp. 455-459.
7. Gottlieb, History of the First Blood Transfusion but a Fable Agreed Upon: The Transfusion of Blood to a Pope, Transfusion Medicine Reviews, Vol. 6, No. 3, July 1991, pp. 228-235.
8. Winslow, Robert M, MD, Historical Background, Blood Substitutes, Elsevier, 2006, pp. 5-16.
9. The Watchtower, November 15, 2009, pp. 13-17.
10. Greenwalt, TJ, A short history of transfusion medicine, Transfusion, Vol. 37, May 1997, pp. 550-563.
___
0 comments:
Post a Comment