CAN SCIENCE AND RELIGION TANGO?

Gbovuga last week I received numerous calls and e-mails and bouy I didn’t know that my thought on the AIDS and the gay debate was really a sticking to some who read the piece. For that gay dude who wrote to me, I want to borrow the words of Watson Churchill for response, “I was not the lion. I just supplied the roar”.

Gbovuga, this country of ours is indeed a robust one with all sought of individuals and their own quirks if you ask me but these diversities is what makes our democracy very interesting and top nougat t. Gbovu, I have supine and thinking when religion and science will agree. These two fractions of old since history have always collided on sensitive issues which can not be ignored. And to make matters worse when they fight an innocent group or individual suffers.

A story was told of a nine-year old girl whose parent would not allow the girl to receive blood transfusion on the grounds of religion. The sickle cell patient whose blood count had gone down drastically was diagnosed by a team of doctors from the Princess Marie Louise Children's Hospital here in Accra.

According to the doctors the girl has broken cell indicating the fast break down of the red blood cells. This can be detected by colour of the urine which usually is very dark like ‘Coca cola’. Gbovu, you can say ‘aahh rite’ but there is nothing right about sickle cell and especially when the patient is in crisis. You can imagine the pain the young lady was going through.

Hey now you know what people will do to defend and uphold their religious faith, huh? I guess if it was a test of faith, then the parent of the girl must have passed Gbovu? Faith, the answer is starring right at our faces abi?

The girls parent who are from the Jehovah Witnesses faith went to the teeth to prevent any transfusion of blood but thanks to the intervention of the James Town police and the sheer zeal of the doctors on duty the little girl who lacks capacity to make a decision could have died all for faith and in the name of religion.

Gbovuga Let looks at these hypotheses, what if the girl had died? Who do we blame faith or the parent of the girl or the doctors who might have given in to the pressure and the stubbornness of the parent? So now that the girl has received the blood transfusion does it mean that the child has been contaminated?

Gbovuga it is well documented that the Jehovah's Witnesses faith are renowned for teaching that Jesus is not God and that the world as we know it will soon end. But another unusual belief which is causing even more entanglements is the belief that God forbids blood transfusions even when patients' lives are at stake.

This tightly disciplined religious group believes the Bible forbids transfusions, though specifics have gradually been eased over the years. Raymond Franz, a defector from the all-powerful Governing Body that sets policies for the faith, thinks leaders hesitate to go further for fear that total elimination of the ban would expose the organization to millions of dollars in legal liability over past medical cases. This is encapsulated in an article written by Richard N. Ostling. Is that not revealing Gbovu?

The group since 1945 has rejected blood transfusion or any form of component of blood which include red cells, white cells, platelets and plasma. Gbovuga this component also known as blood fractions as you are aware are arguably the bases of life. This mean so long as you are a member of the group you are not allowed accept or donate any blood. Finito!

The Watchtower's 1945 ban said "all worshippers of Jehovah who seek eternal life in his new world" must obey. Such edicts are regarded as divine law, since the Governing Body uniquely directs true believers. Violators risk ostracism by family and friends. Members are further advised to forbade storage of a patient's own blood for later transfusion.

Gbovuga, at the core of this blood belief, Witnesses cite Acts 15:29, where Jesus' apostles agreed that Gentile converts should "keep abstaining from things sacrificed to idols and from blood." The Witnesses also cite passages in Genesis 9:4 and Leviticus 17:10. Judaism and Christianity have always understood these scriptures to ban blood-eating for nourishment. This underlies Judaism's kosher procedures to extract blood from meat, which Witnesses do not follow.

In his book "In Search of Christian Freedom." Raymond Franz raises questions about the blood policy and some I am oblige to share with you Gbovuga and they are as follows; Why forbid a patient's own stored blood yet permit components derived from large amounts of donated and stored blood?, Why allow organ transplants, which introduce far more foreign white blood cells than transfusions? The Witnesses forbid plasma, which is mostly water, but allow the components in it that provide therapy. So what's the point of banning plasma? Oops he asks!

Gbovuga, some members of the group has argued in recent times that before 1945, there was no evidence suggesting that the general population of Witnesses held a taboo against blood transfusion and, in fact, the governing body at the time expressed praise when relating experiences in which allergenic blood was used to save lives. In 1945, the governing body then taught that it was morally wrong to accept blood transfusions. In 1961, this doctrine began to be enforced under the pain of organised shunning.

Gbovu, further enquiries revealed that in 1966, the governing body put it bluntly to the Witnesses community by reminding them of the placing of additional obligations on each [Jehovah’s Witness] individually. The governing body placed these obligations. No measurable, prevailing, communal view of JWs asked for it. This shunning imposes a duty to conform so extreme that Witnesses are required to refrain from even socializing with a family member who has conscientiously accepted a forbidden blood product.

Gbovuga, Witnesses are not the only group with strange doctrines in this country of ours and indeed in the Christian fraternity. It must be said that some churches forbid members from marrying from other churches, while others prevent women from the use ear rings, make-up, wigs among others.

In all this Gbovu, I think the state has a stake to ensure that the fundamental human right of every individual is protected. Let make it next week God willingly.