Religious faith vs. medical treatments

H

Hornius Emeritus

2,500+ Posts
I read this story about Jose Mestre, the man with a 12 .lb facial tumor who refuses to get it operated on because he is a Jehovah's Witness and therefore cannot accept the blood transfusion that would be required.

Before you open this link, let me WARN YOU NOW that it is not for the squeamish or easily grossed out:


The Link



It's hard for me to understand this. Oh, sure: he's a Jehovah's witness and they are against transfusions. What I don't understand is why he couldn't, for example, donate his own blood a few months before the surgery, only to have it reintroduced at the time of his surgery?

I think he's become emotionally "dependent" on his deformity and also on the love and attendance of his sister. The poor guy probably can't imagine another life for himself.
 
I understand adults making these decisions for themselves but I don't understand when parents withhold treatment from their children. If just a bad parent starved their child to death, they can do time but because their God told them to refuse treatment, it's ok when a child dies from a disease or ailment that might be treatable?
 
People should be allowed to refuse medical treatments for themselves all they want. I do however have a big problem with parents refusing medical treatments for their kids or indoctrinating them to think the scientific/medical community is evil. And people who advocate all sorts of quackery, pseudoscience, or faith-healing in lieu of actual treatment are just as bad. Frauds like Peter Popoff have been exposed but there are and have been thousands of charlatans who took advantage of people's desperation to take their money. There also plenty of ignorant "healers" who might mean well but as a result of their lack of medical training should not give medical advice.

The Templeton Foundation, a very wealthy organization determined to unite science and religion, funded a landmark, $2.5 million study by Harvard University over several years to determine the effect of prayer on cardiac bypass surgery. It had no positive effect. For people who were told they were being prayed for though, they did slightly worse than the control group because of the increased anxiety from knowing someone was praying for them, possibly thinking "Wow, how bad is it that they're praying for me?"

Read about the study here.
 
Could be why there aren't more of them ringing the doorbell every month or so.
Yes, I suppose you should have the right to withhold treatment for yourself under any circumstances, but not for a minor-that should be criminal. Just like the practices of the Mormon sect in El Dorado. If the adults want to practice polygamy, I think they should have that right, but not to force it on a minor.
 
While God can and does heal miraculously, just like the passage in Ecclesiastes, there is a time for everything. There is a time for God to heal supernaturally, and there is a time to go to the Doctor and allow them use the knowledge that God has given mankind to develop the medicinal practices that we have.

I just don't understand where or why they draw a line. Do they not eat because God will give them sustenance? Do they not work because God will give them money? Do they not go to a mechanic when their car breaks down?
 
I read this thread and I am sure a lot of you will know what I am going to say, but I have to anyway.

Does anyone else not see the lunacy that Religion justifies?
 
This always gets frustrating when we have people on full "life support"- ventilators, dialysis, vasopressors, and whatever else- and we're trying to convince families that it's in vain and the patient needs to be allowed to die. Many of them say that they are going to let God decide..... is it really "letting God decide" if we're keeping the person alive with machines for weeks, "restarting" their system with CPR and ACLS everytime they actually try to die?
 
I bet a lot of those families aren't thinking, "God will heal my child." I bet they are thinking, "God wants my child."

Who was that dude in the Bible who God told to sacrifice his son and he was about to do it when God miraculously intervened? What a ******* idiot that guy was, huh?

I'm not in favor of turning down medical treatment, just trying to play devil's advocate.
 
I love it when folks that subscribe to one particular brand of invisible man in the sky ******** talk about the sillyness of another brand of invisible man in the sky ********.

It's even funnier when they get more serious and kill each other over it.
 
Oh God said to Abraham, "Kill me a son"
Abe says, "Man, you must be puttin' me on"
God say, "No." Abe say, "What?"
God say, "You can do what you want Abe, but
The next time you see me comin' you better run"
Well Abe says, "Where do you want this killin' done?"
God says, "Out on Highway 61."
 
My aunt was a Jehovah Witness. She carted around my cousins to all the functions and went door to door. Her husband didn't participate in it. He was in a car accident and she didn't want him getting a transfusion. Eventually she gave in but it was too late. Well she never went back to the church.
 
The way it was explained to me is that once you take it out of the body you ruin it. Doesn't matter if it's your own donated blood or not. We do things to the blood once it's left the body and that makes it unusable.
 
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