Donald Ridley is one of Jehovah’s Witnesses and a lawyer for the Watchtower organization. In 1998 he wrote an article in a medical journal in response to another article written in the same journal issue by Drs. Douglas Migden and Richard Braen.[1-2] (Ridley had the benefit of reading Migden and Braen’s article in advance for purpose of offering reply in the same journal issue.)
In their article Drs. Migden and Braen recommended investigating the autonomy of Advance Directives refusing blood transfusion from Witness patients. In response to this Ridley makes a curious statement.
What Ridley wrote in response
Ridley expresses to Drs. Migden and Braen that it is important to the issue of autonomy that Jehovah’s Witnesses were given a Watchtower provided Advance Directive card only if they take the initiative to ask for one.
Watchtower’s directions
A review of the above shows that in January 1998 Watchtower was distributing Advance Directive cards as Ridley said. But the above shows the year prior and afterward the distribution was not as Ridley stated.
The average reader would have to assume Ridley’s statement was to represent how Watchtower had historically distributed its Advance Directive cards rather than it expressing a brand spanking new development in that distribution, and that assumption by readers would lead to a false conclusion. In his presentation Ridley made no suggestion that his statement of import was a new development.
Moreover, if as Ridley stated, it was important to autonomy that Witnesses were given these cards only if they requested one, what does this say for the practice up until January of 1998 for Watchtower appointed elders to make sure every baptized Witness was given one of these Advance Directive documents?
Ironically, Ridley's response is presented as though to undo alleged misinformation coming from Drs. Migden and Baen.
Marvin Shilmer
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References:
1. Ridley, Honoring Jehovah's Witnesses' Advance Directives in Emergencies: A Response to Drs. Migden and Braen, Academic Emergency Medicine, August 1998, Vol. 5 No. 8, pp. 824-835.
2. Migden and Braen, Jehovah's Witness Blood Refusal Card: Ethical and Medicolegal Considerations for Emergency Physicians, Academic Emergency Medicine, August 1998, Vol. 5 No. 8, pp. 815-824.
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