wow, thanks for the post powermd.
You know, when I face those patients when I become a practicing physician, I think I might try to do my best to convince them, right there, right then, that their belief is scewed. I was looking at the history of JW, and it really is weird... at some points in history they allowed hemoglobin, but not plasma, then not plasma but somethign else, blah blah. I think it would be a really interesting thing to study.
The thing is, you don't want to critisize their beliefs.. that is, you're naturally on a fence, and so you have to be careful not to fall over the wrong way. But, of course, being able to do that entails knowing in great detail the reasons and historical forces behind their beliefs.
In my experience, however, JW's knowledge about why they don't take blood is pretty limited.. basically limited to a narrow interpretation of some scriptures - which they let their so-called "governing body" interpret for them....
with the idea in mind, that generally, JW are very reasonable... or, that's how they like to think of themselves, perhaps dealing with them would be with factual, reasonable methods.
I kinda am thinking about researchin this topic for my thesis in my school next year. I don't know exactly what specifically, but this wohle topic really intrigues me. I mean, it's seems like it's such a great window of opportunity to study modern religion and medicine's juxtoposition/competition.
any ideas?
Kreno
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