Watchtower doctor being honest?

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Dr. Jon Schiller was once on staff at the Watchtower organization’s world headquarters in its medical department.[1] In a newly released book Dr. Schiller states Watchtower’s blood doctrine has remained “essentially unchanged” since 1981 when authors Dixon and Smalley wrote a position paper on behalf of the Watchtower organization.[2-3]

Is this representation by Dr. Schiller true?

Prior to year 2000 the Watchtower organization’s blood doctrine did not permit Jehovah’s Witnesses to accept hemoglobin solutions extracted from donor blood.[4-5]

But as of year 2000 its blood doctrine does permit Jehovah’s Witnesses to accept hemoglobin solutions extracted from blood.[6-7]

Prior to year 2000 there is nothing published suggesting Watchtower’s blood doctrine permited Jehovah’s Witnesses to accept transfusion of cryosupernatant from donor blood. Noteworthy is that there is nothing minor about this blood product. It composes more than 50% of the volume of blood.

Since year 2000 there is published statements that Watchtower’s blood doctrine permits Jehovah’s Witnesses to accept transfusion of cryosupernatant from donor blood.[8-9]

Dr. Schiller tells the medical community that Watchtower’s blood doctrine has remained essentially unchanged since year 1981. Yet, as seen above, year 2000 saw a significant change in doctrine permitting Jehovah’s Witnesses to accept transfusion of products such as hemoglobin solutions and cryosupernatant. These products have afforded a marked improvement in patient outcomes and these two products compose the greater part of a unit of donated blood. Each of these represent essential change and are highly significant: one from a medical perspective and the other from a perspective of "minor" fraction, the latter of which Watchtower has often leaned on within its blood doctrine.

Why does Dr. Schiller soft-peddle changes in the Watchtower organization’s blood doctrine since year 2000? Maybe his concern is being viewed as a religious fanatic were he to address the subject with compete candor by telling things precisely as they are.[10] Or, maybe it is something else. Who knows.

And there's more

Something rather important Dr. Schiller fails to point out to his audience is that thousands upon thousands of Jehovah’s Witnesses have died prematurely because of the Watchtower organization’s blood doctrine.[11]

Then there’s Dr. Schiller’s presentation on the issue of whether and what repercussion Jehovah’s Witnesses face for conscientiously accepting blood products forbidden under Watchtower’s blood doctrine (discussed in an earlier article on this blog).[12]

Conclusion

Readers can decide for themselves whether Dr. Schiller has honestly represented Watchtower’s blood doctrine to the medical community.

My question is: What good purpose does it possibly serve to do anything other than be completely candid about all aspects of the Watchtower organization’s blood doctrine for a person who knows it and who chooses to make representation of it? Readers will have to answer that for themselves as well.

My position is: If a person is proud of a particular position they hold then if they choose to write about it they should tell things precisely as they are for everyone's sake. If a person is not particularly proud of a position they hold then if they choose to write about it they should refrain from soft-peddling, omission and lack of candor in attempt to convince others it's not really that bad.

Marvin Shilmer
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References:

1. Schiller J, MD, Optimal Care for Patients Who Are Jehovah’s Witnesses, Anesthesia and Analgesia, April 2007, Vol. 104, No. 4, pp. 755-756.

2. Schiller J, MD, Jehovah's Witnesses, in The soul of medicine: spiritual perspectives and clinical practice, edited by John R. Peteet and Michael N, D'Ambra (The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland, 2011), pp. 171-187.

3. Dixon, MD 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. Both authors are Jehovah’s Witnesses and staff at Watchtower’s world headquarters.

4. Richard Bailey and Tomonori Ariga, The View of Jehovah’s Witnesses on Blood Substitutes, Art. Cells, Blood Subs., and Immob. Biotech., 26(5&6), 571-576 (1998) Authors Bailey and Ariga are official representatives of the Watchtower organization’s Hospital Information Services department.

5. Malak J, MD, Jehovah's Witnesses and Medicine: An Overview of Beleifs and Issues in Their Care, Journal of the Medical Association of Georgia, November 1998, Vol. 87, pp. 322-327. Dr. Joseph Malak is one of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

6. Awake!, published by Watchtower, August 2006, p. 11.

7. Handout, provided by Watchtower to its Hospital Liaison Committee members in year 2002.

8. Hill, Steven, MD, Care of the Cardiothoracic Surgical Patient Refusing Transfusion, Medically Challenging Patients Undergoing Cardiothoracic Surgery edited by Neal H. Cohan, MD, Wolters Kluwer │ Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2009, pp. 327-347.

9. West, James, MD, Informed refusal — the Jehovah's Witness patient, Clinical Ethics in Anesthesiology: A Case-Based Textbook, Cambridge University Press, 2010 pp. 19-26.

10. Watchtower Admission – Religious Fanaticism

11. More than 50,000 dead

12. Watchtower Doctor on Blood

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