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JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES’ DEATHS
On March 22, 2003 Milton George Henschel,
died aged 82. Henschel held the reins of the JW organisation since
assuming the presidency of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society (WTBTS
) (also known as the International Bible Students Association – e.g. in
Singapore) in 1992. Since the 1970s he served on the ruling and
‘spiritual’ committee of the organisation, the Governing Body and
was one of the corporate Director of the movement until he stepped down in
a major restructuring move in October 2000.
Henschel was the fifth WTBTS head leader
and president after Charles Taze Russell started a bible study group in
1870. In 1884 he incorporated his bible study groups/congregations
as Zion’s Watch
Tower Bible and Tract Society. Russell was replaced by ‘Judge’ Joseph
Franklin Rutherford after his death. Then came Nathan Homer Knorr,
followed by Frederick William Franz, and finally Milton George Henschel.
The major October 2000 restructuring led
Henschel and six other directors to step down from the corporate
leadership of the WTBTS. They remained members of the Governing Body
but only have authority over religious matters and direction. The WTBTS
formed three separate companies to handle all legal corporate affairs and
Don Adams (now 77) became WTBTS President – the first time the President
of the movement was not one of the ‘anointed’ members of the Governing
Body. These moves effectively prevented the ‘spiritual leadership’
of the movement being legally liable in any actions taken against the
WTBTS corporate body. This came at a time of mounting legal action against
the movement and its leaders for its teaching against blood transfusions
(and the resulting harm) and also the number of increasing paedophilia
cases involving Jehovah’s Witnesses leaders.
A British Coroner’s Court revealed in
April 2003 how a Nigerian woman, Mrs Patience Edema, 24, had bled to
death, following giving birth to her daughter in October 2002. Mrs
Edema could have had her life saved if she had taken a blood transfusion,
but she and her husband were Jehovah’s Witnesses and believed that the
organisation’s ban on blood transfusions was God’s will for them.
Mrs Edema had suffered a couple of previous miscarriages in
Nigeria and anticipated a successful birth while in
Britain. Pregnancy complications led to a caesarean procedure and
safe delivery of her second daughter. While the caesarean went well,
other complication developed a couple of days later. Hospital
medical staff told the couple that an emergency hysterectomy needed to be
carried out, and that additional possible internal bleeding would require
a blood transfusion. After the couple refused the blood transfusion
the doctors performed the hysterectomy and did their best with dialysis
and life support equipment in ICU, but the young mother died.
In a statement recalling October 2002’s
tragedy, Mr Omatseye Edema stated:
‘I am now left alone on
a strange terrain to cater for my two daughters as a single parent.
All my wife’s ambitions and inspirations have been nipped in the bud. Can
my life be the same again?’
The WTBTS continues to push its
distortion of Biblical teaching through its rejection of blood
transfusions at the high cost of human life and suffering. Its
leaders have a lot to answer for.
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