Chris Reeve Quote

We’ve had a severe vio­la­tion of the sep­a­ra­tion of church and state in the han­dling of what to do about this emerg­ing tech­nol­o­gy. There are reli­gious groups—the Jeho­vah’s Wit­ness­es, I believe—who think it’s a sin to have a blood trans­fu­sion. Well, what if the pres­i­dent for some rea­son decid­ed to lis­ten to them, instead of to the Catholics, which is the group he real­ly lis­tens to in mak­ing his deci­sions about embry­on­ic stem cell research? Where would we be with blood transfusions?

(From a Sep­tem­ber 2002 inte­view with The Guardian.)

Let’s hope the Chris­t­ian Sci­en­tists nev­er get any influ­ence over the State, either, since they believe in no treat­ment but prayer. The idea of hav­ing any med­ical pro­ce­dure leg­is­lat­ed against due to the idea that audit­ing would work is ludi­crous. I hope it stays that way.

I’m fair­ly cer­tain, though, that if you’d asked any aver­age Amer­i­can around 1920 if he thought Catholic the­ol­o­gy would be leg­is­lat­ed in the US, he would have said NO.

In look­ing for infor­ma­tion to ver­i­fy the accu­ra­cy of the claim about Jeho­vah’s Wit­ness­es and blood trans­fu­sions, I found it inter­est­ing that the JWs also opposed immu­niza­tions until 1952. At that time, they seem to have feared legal reper­cus­sions so much that they stopped rec­om­mend­ing that mem­bers avoid vac­ci­na­tions. Way to stick to your scrip­tur­al truth, guys!

Cyn is Rick's wife, Katie's Mom, and Esther & Oliver's Mémé. She's also a professional geek, avid reader, fledgling coder, enthusiastic gamer (TTRPGs), occasional singer, and devoted stitcher.
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