Dr. Denton Cooley — Watchtower Misadvertised

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Once upon a time Dr. Denton Cooley was a name widely spoken of among Jehovah’s Witnesses as a heart surgeon who would operate without using blood. As Cooley explained himself, he believed “a patient should have a right to make his or her own decision, and that the physician has a moral responsibility to respect the wishes of the patient.”[1]

For his dedication, innovation and skill as a heart surgeon, Jehovah’s Witnesses flocked to Dr. Cooley as need arose. The community of Jehovah’s Witnesses is forever grateful. He saved the life of many a Witness because of his expertise and willingness to proceed when others would not.

Cooley writes an article

In year 1977 Dr. Cooley coauthored a seminal report on 542 cardiovascular surgeries performed on Jehovah’s Witnesses who refused all blood derivatives.[1] Watchtower rushed to advertise this article to its readership, including a few direct quotations.[2]

Something missing

Curiously missing from Watchtower’s initial coverage was the rate of mortality found in Cooley’s report, including how many patients died from blood loss as a result of abiding by Watchtower’s blood doctrine. This information was highlighted in the abstract and main text of Cooley’s article. But Watchtower never shared either from Cooley’s report.

Watchtower readers didn’t have to remain curious for long. Less than a year later, in 1978 Watchtower quoted another doctor who expressed a rate of mortality shared in Cooley’s article. Quoting Dr. J. E. Dunphy from the Bulletin of the American College of Surgeons (1978), Watchtower published the following[3]:

What Watchtower did

Watchtower presented to its readership a 5% mortality rate published in Cooley’s 1977 article. But this is nearly half what Cooley reported as the mortality statistic for the 542 surgeries. Specifically, Cooley reported an overall 9.4% mortality.

So the one instance where Watchtower took opportunity to share the rate of mortality reported by Cooley in his 1977 article, it published a figure nearly 50% less than the total rate. It did this by quoting a remark made by another doctor.[4] Watchtower knew the overall statistic.[2,5] But it did not publish it. Instead, Watchtower published something else. Watchtower published a statistic that made potential mortality appear much smaller.

What Watchtower didn't do

In its 1977 presentation of Cooley’s report Watchtower extracted and shared several statements from the article. One of those quotes was “Cardiovascular operations can be performed safely without blood transfusion.” Sounds good. But what Watchtower did not share is the sentence immediately preceding that statement. It reads this way[1]:

Not only did Watchtower publish misleading information on the rate of mortality shared in Cooley’s report of 542 surgeries, it also never shared that at least 3 of the patients hemorrhaged to death as a direct result of abiding by Watchtower’s blood doctrine, and another 12 died with that blood doctrine as a contributing factor.

Marvin Shilmer
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References

1. Cooley D et al, Cardiovascular Surgery in Jehovah's Witnesses, Journal of the American Medical Association, September 19, 1977, Vol. 238, No. 12, pp. 1256-1258.

2. Awake!, published by Watchtower, Nov. 8, 1977, p. 29.

3. The Watchtower, Sept. 15, 1978, p. 28.

4 Dr. J. E. Dunphy apparently was referencing a figure from the table on page 1257 of Cooley’s article where a total of 4.8% is shown at the bottom. This is the total of a subset of Cooley’s report of 542 operations and not of the entire 542. The overall mortality rate of 9.4% is stated expressly twice in Cooley's report, and on page 1257 is extractable from the table with simple arithmetic. I do not have the entire article authored by Dunphy and am unable to confirm what he was referring to (or in whatever context he wrote what he did) as quoted by Watchtower.

5 In year 1981 two high-ranking Watchtower insiders cited the 1977 article by Cooley. One of these was a licensed physician whose profession is to correctly read and comprehend medical information. The other was a staff researcher whose job is to correctly read and comprehend information that he chooses to use. (See: Dixon and Smalley, Jehovah's Witnesses—The Surgical Ethical Challenge, Journal of the American Medical Association, Nov. 27, 1981, Vol. 246, No. 21, pp. 2471-2472.)

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