El número del 22 de mayo de 1994 de ¡Despertad! es la publicación más citada, y peor descrita, de toda la historia de la norma sobre la sangre. Esta página expone exactamente qué dice ese número, a quién nombra, qué recoge sobre cada uno de ellos y en qué se equivoca la afirmación que circula por internet acerca de su portada.
Última revisión 19 de septiembre de 2026
AWAKE!22 May 1994“Youths Who Put God First”Feature articles, pages 3 to 15
Set in type, not reproduced. The artwork of the cover is not shown here. Still published on the organisation’s own online library, so every quotation below can be checked against it.
Este número es la publicación más citada en la historia de la política sobre la sangre, y también la más frecuentemente mal descrita. Ambas cosas importan, así que esta página cumple dos funciones: expone con precisión lo que el número documenta, y expone con precisión lo que no documenta.
Lo que documenta es ya bastante grave por sí solo. La revista de interés general de la propia organización dijo a sus lectores que había jóvenes testigos que morían por poner a Dios en primer lugar, que la cuestión eran las transfusiones de sangre, y a continuación nombró a seis de ellos.
En resumen
The issue’s contents page framed young Witnesses who refused blood as continuing a tradition of youths who ‘died for putting God first’, ‘with blood transfusions the issue’.Source: Awake!, 22 de mayo de 1994
La portada es un montaje de fotografías de jóvenes. El número no los identifica ni dice qué fue de ellos. La afirmación habitual de que «todos los niños de la portada murieron» no está respaldada por la publicación, y nosotros no la repetimos.
In former times thousands of youths died for putting God first. They are still doing it, only today the drama is played out in hospitals and courtrooms, with blood transfusions the issue.
Esta frase es el planteamiento de la propia publicación, en su propia página de contenido: sitúa a los jóvenes que rechazan la sangre en la línea de los jóvenes que «murieron por poner a Dios en primer lugar», y afirma que hoy «la historia se repite». Ambas declaraciones son de la organización, no de un crítico.
Declaración explícita · 22 de mayo de 1994Verificado
El número del 22 de mayo de 1994 de ¡Despertad! presentó su serie de portada declarando que los jóvenes ‘are still’ muriendo por poner a Dios en primer lugar, ‘with blood transfusions the issue’. Source: Awake!, 22 de mayo de 1994
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Publicación primaria de los testigos de JehováVerificado
22 de mayo de 1994 · p.2 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“In former times thousands of youths died for putting God first. They are still doing it, only today the drama is played out in hospitals and courtrooms, with blood transfusions the issue.”
The contents page introduces the series ‘Youths Who Put God First’ on pages 3–15. It does not name or count the young people pictured on the cover.
Notes.The cover (a montage of photographs of young people beneath the title) is not reproduced on the Online Library; a low-resolution scan hosted by a discovery site was viewed but the number of people pictured could not be reliably counted from it.
Consultado. 19 de septiembre de 2026 · Identificador de la fuente.src-g-1994-0522-contents
La posición de la organización o su explicación posterior: El propio índice anual de 1994 de la revista clasifica la serie bajo ‘Jehovah’s Witnesses’ y la etiqueta ‘(Blood Issue)’.
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Publicación primaria de los testigos de JehováVerificado
22 de mayo de 1994 · pp.1-32 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“He ‘Remembered His Creator in the Days of His Youth’ … Youths Who Have “Power Beyond What Is Normal””
The issue runs to 32 pages and contains twelve items. The official publication file records the page range of each: Page Two (2); ‘He “Remembered His Creator in the Days of His Youth”’ (3-8); ‘Youths Who Have “Power Beyond What Is Normal”’ (9-15); ‘Alligators—Rare, White, and Blue-Eyed!’ (16-17); ‘What If I Fall For an Unbeliever?’ (18-20); ‘Is the Bible Irrelevant?’ (21); ‘Your Chop Your Signature’ (22-24); ‘Put Humor Into Your Life’ (25-27); ‘Watching the World’ (28-29); ‘From Our Readers’ (30); ‘Contaminated Blood Given to Hemophiliacs’ (31); ‘The “Godly Fear” District Convention Is At Hand’ (32). The two blood articles occupy pages 3-15, thirteen of the issue's thirty-two pages. Neither of them is headed ‘Youths Who Put God First’: that is the cover title. Inside the issue the phrase occurs only in the page 2 contents item, which reads ‘Youths Who Put God First 3-15’ (Watchtower Online Library document 101994360, par. 2; src-g-1994-0522-contents), and in the magazine’s own 1994 annual index.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for Awake!, Awake!, 22 May 1994 (complete issue; official publication file g_E_19940522.jwpub)
Nota de confianza.The issue listing was opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026, and the official publication file g_E_19940522.jwpub (linked from the JW.org pub-media service at https://cfp2.jw-cdn.org/a/044135e/2/o/g_E_19940522.jwpub) was downloaded and its publication database read directly; the twelve documents and their first and last page numbers are taken from that file. Both steps were repeated independently by the auditor on 19 September 2026: the twelve rows of the Document table and their FirstPageNumber and LastPageNumber values match, and the pub-media service offers this issue in JWPUB format only, with an empty pubImage entry.
Notes.The official publication file contains no multimedia records at all (the Multimedia, DocumentMultimedia and ExtractMultimedia tables are empty and the manifest lists no images), so the authorised digital edition of this issue carries no photographs or illustrations. The printed issue did carry pictures: the Watchtower Online Library text retains picture and picture-credit lines for pages 16, 19, 21, 23, 26, 31 and 32. There is no such line in either of the two blood articles.
Consultado. 19 de septiembre de 2026 · Identificador de la fuente.src-g94d-issue-contents-map
Publicación primaria de los testigos de JehováVerificado
22 de mayo de 1994 · p.31 · pars. 1-6 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“BLOOD has become a two-billion-dollar-a-year business. The pursuit of profits from it has resulted in a gigantic tragedy in France. HIV-contaminated blood caused the death of 250 hemophiliacs in AIDS-related illnesses, with hundreds more infected.”
A further item in the same issue, on page 31, summarising the contaminated-blood scandals in France, Germany, Canada and Spain and the United States factor VIII warnings, citing The Boston Globe, Guardian Weekly, The Globe and Mail, The Medical Post, The New York Times and Dateline NBC.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for Awake!, Contaminated Blood Given to Hemophiliacs
Nota de confianza.Opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026 and the wording, page marker and paragraph confirmed against the article text.
22 de diciembre de 1994 · p.31 · entry under ‘Jehovah’s Witnesses’ · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“Youths Who Put God First (Blood Issue), 5/22”
The magazine’s own annual index for 1994 lists the series under ‘Jehovah’s Witnesses’ and labels it, in parentheses, ‘Blood Issue’. The same index lists the page 31 item as ‘Contaminated Blood to Hemophiliacs, 5/22’ under ‘Health and Medicine’.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for Awake!, Index to Volume 75 of Awake!
Nota de confianza.Opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026 and the wording, page marker and paragraph confirmed against the article text.
El mismo número incluía un texto en la página 31 que informaba de la infección de hemofílicos con hemoderivados contaminados con el VIH en Francia, Alemania, Canadá y España, y de la retirada tardía del factor VIII no tratado con calor en Estados Unidos. Source: Awake!, 22 de mayo de 1994
La posición de la organización o su explicación posterior: El texto cita como fuentes The Boston Globe, Guardian Weekly, The Globe and Mail, The Medical Post, The New York Times y Dateline NBC, y los hechos que describe constan públicamente en cada uno de esos países.
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Publicación primaria de los testigos de JehováVerificado
22 de mayo de 1994 · p.31 · pars. 1-6 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“BLOOD has become a two-billion-dollar-a-year business. The pursuit of profits from it has resulted in a gigantic tragedy in France. HIV-contaminated blood caused the death of 250 hemophiliacs in AIDS-related illnesses, with hundreds more infected.”
A further item in the same issue, on page 31, summarising the contaminated-blood scandals in France, Germany, Canada and Spain and the United States factor VIII warnings, citing The Boston Globe, Guardian Weekly, The Globe and Mail, The Medical Post, The New York Times and Dateline NBC.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for Awake!, Contaminated Blood Given to Hemophiliacs
Nota de confianza.Opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026 and the wording, page marker and paragraph confirmed against the article text.
La tabla recoge únicamente lo que afirman los dos artículos. Las edades son las que da el número. «Desenlace» reproduce la redacción del artículo o una paráfrasis cercana; cuando el artículo recoge que la persona sobrevivió, esa es la situación en el momento de escribirse, en 1994, y no hacemos ninguna afirmación sobre la vida de nadie desde entonces.
Named in Awake!, 22 May 1994, pages 3–15
Name
Age
Place
Condition
What was refused
Outcome as recorded
Source
Adrian Yeatts
14 at diagnosis (15 in later accounts)
Newfoundland, Canada
Abdominal lymphoma, then leukaemia (1993)
Blood transfusions; court declared him a mature minor
Died Died 13 September 1993, the day after his baptism
Alive in 1994 Transfused under a court order (“once”, per the magazine; the judgment records several transfusions over about six weeks — see below); “no further transfusions”; “did not die from her leukemia”
Declaración explícita · 22 de mayo de 1994Verificado
Los dos artículos principales de ¡Despertad! del 22 de mayo de 1994 nombran a seis jóvenes que rechazaron la sangre. El número deja constancia de que tres murieron (Adrian Yeatts, 14; Lenae Martinez, 12; Lisa Kosack, 12) y de que tres vivían en el momento de escribirse (el niño de tres años de Ohio, 3; la joven de diecisiete años de Nueva York, 17; E.G., 17). Source: Awake!, 22 de mayo de 1994Source: Awake!, 22 de mayo de 1994
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Publicación primaria de los testigos de JehováVerificado
22 de mayo de 1994 · pp.3-8 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“I just could not live with myself if I am given blood.”
The article, narrated by his father, describes Adrian Yeatts of Newfoundland, Canada, aged 14, diagnosed with a fast-growing abdominal lymphoma in March 1993 and subsequently leukaemia. Newfoundland’s Supreme Court (Justice Robert Wells) held in July 1993 that he was a mature minor whose refusal of blood would be respected. He was baptised in a hospital physiotherapy tank on 12 September 1993 and the article records that he died the next day. A boxed item describes a bloodless heart transplant for three-year-old the three-year-old in Ohio of Ohio in October 1993, reported a month later as doing well. The article also records the medical advice as the family reported it: Dr Jardine 'explained that a very aggressive chemotherapy program with blood transfusions was the only way Adrian could possibly live'; 'chemotherapy was started, without the transfusions'; and it closes by saying that he rejected transfusions 'that could conceivably have extended his present life'.
22 de mayo de 1994 · pp.9-15 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“After a long, difficult night, at 6:30 a.m., September 22, 1993, Lenae fell asleep in death in the arms of her mother.”
The article profiles four young people: Lenae Martinez, 12, Fresno, California, leukaemia — recorded as having died on 22 September 1993; the New York seventeen-year-old, 17, New York City, inflammatory bowel disease — ‘Crystal never needed blood, and none was ever transfused’; Lisa Kosack, 12, Toronto, acute myeloid leukaemia — ‘She died peacefully at home, in the loving arms of her mother and father’; E.G., 17, Chicago, leukaemia — ‘Ernestine had no further transfusions, and she did not die from her leukemia.’ E.G. (par. 59) was transfused once under a trial-court order 'in spite of her vigorous protests'; the Illinois Appellate Court and the Illinois Supreme Court then upheld her right to refuse (pars. 60-61), and the article records that she 'had no further transfusions, and she did not die from her leukemia' (par. 63).
Nota de procedencia y verificación for Awake!, Youths Who Have ‘Power Beyond What Is Normal’
Nota de confianza.Opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026; names, ages, places and outcome sentences confirmed from the article text.
Notes.Together with the first article, the issue names six young people: three recorded as having died and three recorded as alive at the time of writing.
Consultado. 19 de septiembre de 2026 · Identificador de la fuente.src-g-1994-0522-power-beyond-normal
The first article is narrated by Adrian’s father. It describes a fast-growing abdominal tumour found in March 1993, a diagnosis of lymphoma and then leukaemia, and a child-welfare application to Newfoundland’s Supreme Court, which ruled in July 1993 that he was a mature minor whose refusal of blood would be respected.Source: Awake!, 22 de mayo de 1994
I just could not live with myself if I am given blood.
Dr. Jardine now explained that a very aggressive chemotherapy program with blood transfusions was the only way Adrian could possibly live. Adrian, however, still refused blood transfusions. Chemotherapy was started, without the transfusions.
The article records the medical advice as the family reported it: the treating doctor ‘explained that a very aggressive chemotherapy program with blood transfusions was the only way Adrian could possibly live’, and ‘chemotherapy was started, without the transfusions’. The magazine itself closes by saying that he rejected transfusions ‘that could conceivably have extended his present life’. We quote those sentences because they are the organisation’s own record of what the doctors said. We do not say what would have happened had he accepted; the article does not, and nobody can. It records a fourteen-year-old’s conviction, a court’s respect for it, and his death.Source: Awake!, 22 de mayo de 1994
El artículo recoge otras tres cosas sobre los días previos a su muerte, cada una de ellas según el relato de la propia revista.
El artículo recoge que su oncólogo preguntó directamente a Adrian Yeatts, que entonces tenía catorce años, si se daba cuenta de que podía morir sin una transfusión, y que él respondió ‘Yes’ y ‘If that’s what it takes’, y que, tras la biopsia, el médico dijo que la quimioterapia agresiva con transfusiones era la única forma en que podría llegar a vivir. Source: Awake!, 22 de mayo de 1994Source: Awake!, 22 de mayo de 1994Source: Awake!, 22 de mayo de 1994
La posición de la organización o su explicación posterior: El artículo presenta este intercambio como prueba de una decisión informada e independiente, y cita la satisfacción de su abogado por que ‘he exercised a mind of his own’.
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Publicación primaria de los testigos de JehováVerificado
22 de mayo de 1994 · p.4 · pars. 11-14 (Watchtower Online Library paragraph ids p11-p14) · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“Dr. Jardine asked, “Do you realize that you could die if you don’t take a blood transfusion?” “Yes.” “And you’re willing to do that?” “If that’s what it takes.””
The exchange is reported as taking place at the Dr. Charles A. Janeway Child Health Centre, St John’s, Newfoundland, while Adrian Yeatts, then 14, was awaiting a biopsy to be performed without blood. The oncologist is named in the article as Dr Lawrence Jardine.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for Awake!, He ‘Remembered His Creator in the Days of His Youth’
Nota de confianza.Opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026 and the wording, page marker and paragraph confirmed against the article text.
22 de mayo de 1994 · p.5 · par. 17 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“The biopsy was performed on March 18. It showed that Adrian had a large lymphoma tumor. A subsequent bone marrow biopsy confirmed the fear that he had developed leukemia.”
The article dates the biopsy to 18 March 1993 and records that the treating oncologist then said aggressive chemotherapy with blood transfusions was the only way Adrian could possibly live, and that chemotherapy was begun without transfusions.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for Awake!, He ‘Remembered His Creator in the Days of His Youth’
Nota de confianza.Opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026 and the wording, page marker and paragraph confirmed against the article text.
22 de mayo de 1994 · pp.3-8 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“I just could not live with myself if I am given blood.”
The article, narrated by his father, describes Adrian Yeatts of Newfoundland, Canada, aged 14, diagnosed with a fast-growing abdominal lymphoma in March 1993 and subsequently leukaemia. Newfoundland’s Supreme Court (Justice Robert Wells) held in July 1993 that he was a mature minor whose refusal of blood would be respected. He was baptised in a hospital physiotherapy tank on 12 September 1993 and the article records that he died the next day. A boxed item describes a bloodless heart transplant for three-year-old the three-year-old in Ohio of Ohio in October 1993, reported a month later as doing well. The article also records the medical advice as the family reported it: Dr Jardine 'explained that a very aggressive chemotherapy program with blood transfusions was the only way Adrian could possibly live'; 'chemotherapy was started, without the transfusions'; and it closes by saying that he rejected transfusions 'that could conceivably have extended his present life'.
Declaración explícita · 19 de julio de 1993Verificado
En una declaración jurada firmada y presentada ante el Tribunal Supremo de Terranova, Adrian Yeatts escribió que sabía que podía morir sin sangre, que nadie lo había convencido de tomar esa decisión y que una transfusión ‘will be like raping me, molesting my body’, y terminaba: ‘Please respect me and my wishes.’ Source: Awake!, 22 de mayo de 1994
La posición de la organización o su explicación posterior: El tribunal aceptó la declaración jurada y el juez entrevistó al muchacho en el hospital antes de declararlo menor maduro.
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Publicación primaria de los testigos de JehováVerificado
22 de mayo de 1994 · p.6 · par. 24 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“I won’t agree to blood or let it be used; no way. I know I could die if no blood is used. But that is my decision. No one talked me into that. … The way I feel is that if I’m given any blood that will be like raping me, molesting my body. … Please respect me and my wishes.”
Extracts from a signed affidavit prepared by Adrian, who was too ill to appear, and put before the Supreme Court of Newfoundland on Monday 19 July 1993 by counsel, David C. Day QC. The article prints the affidavit at length. The second ellipsis in the quotation spans both further affidavit text (‘I don’t want my body if that happens… I’ll resist use of blood.’) and the magazine’s own narration, ‘Adrian’s affidavit ended with this appeal:’; the closing sentence is the affidavit’s, but it is introduced by the magazine and not printed continuously with the rest.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for Awake!, He ‘Remembered His Creator in the Days of His Youth’
Nota de confianza.Opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026 and the wording, page marker and paragraph confirmed against the article text.
Notes.The article twice uses the language of sexual violation — here and in Lisa Kosack’s evidence on page 13 — to describe a transfusion given against the patient’s will.
Consultado. 19 de septiembre de 2026 · Identificador de la fuente.src-g94d-yeatts-affidavit
El juez Wells desestimó las solicitudes del director de Bienestar Infantil, sostuvo que no se había demostrado que la sangre fuera esencial —‘not been demonstrated to be essential’— y que ‘could be harmful’ en aquellas circunstancias, y declaró al muchacho menor maduro, cuyo deseo de recibir tratamiento sin sangre debía respetarse; el Tribunal Supremo de Canadá resumió después esa misma resolución, publicada como Re A.Y. (1993), 111 Nfld. & P.E.I.R. 91, y dejó constancia de que el juez Wells señaló que el tratamiento tenía menos de un cuarenta por ciento de probabilidades de ser eficaz, no era ‘essential’ y era contrario a los deseos del adolescente maduro. Source: Awake!, 22 de mayo de 1994Source: Supreme Court of Canada, 26 de junio de 2009
La posición de la organización o su explicación posterior: La organización cita decisiones de este tipo como reivindicaciones de la conciencia y de los derechos de los menores, un enfoque que hizo explícito en el artículo complementario de 1995.
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Publicación primaria de los testigos de JehováVerificado
22 de mayo de 1994 · pp.6-8 · pars. 29-37 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“For the following reasons, the applications of the Director of Child Welfare are dismissed; the child is not in need of protection; the use of blood or blood products for the purposes of blood transfusion or injection have not been demonstrated to be essential, and in the particular circumstances of this case, could be harmful.”
The article prints extracts from the decision of Wells J of the Supreme Court of Newfoundland, given on Monday 19 July 1993, and states that the decision was later published in the Human Rights Law Journal of 30 September 1993. Further extracts record the judge’s findings that the boy was ‘mature beyond any normal expectation’ and that forcing treatment on him would drastically reduce his suitability for that treatment.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for Awake!, He ‘Remembered His Creator in the Days of His Youth’
Nota de confianza.Opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026 and the wording, page marker and paragraph confirmed against the article text.
Notes.The judgment is reported as Re A.Y. (1993), 111 Nfld. & P.E.I.R. 91 (Nfld. S.C.); the Human Rights Law Journal printing cited by the magazine was not opened.
Consultado. 19 de septiembre de 2026 · Identificador de la fuente.src-g94d-yeatts-wells-decision
26 de junio de 2009 · pp.[2009] 2 S.C.R. 181 at 221-222 · paras. 62-63 (and para. 128 per McLachlin CJ) · Abella J · Supreme Court of Canada
“In Re L.D.K. (1985), 48 R.F.L. (2d) 164 (Ont. Prov. Ct. (Fam. Div.)), for example, the patient was a 12-year-old girl suffering from acute myeloid leukaemia. … In Re A.Y. (1993), 111 Nfld. & P.E.I.R. 91 (Nfld. S.C.), the court was faced with an application from the Director of Child Welfare to impose treatment on a 15-year-old Jehovah’s Witness who had cancer.”
The Supreme Court of Canada’s own summary of the two Canadian decisions described in the 22 May 1994 Awake!. Of Re L.D.K. the Court records that two doctors put the odds of a favourable outcome at around 30 per cent, that Main Prov. Ct. J. found ‘the emotional trauma [the child] would experience’ in forced treatment would outweigh the anticipated benefits (p. 169), and that he concluded ‘[T]his child’s life is equally in danger whichever path is taken’ (p. 170). Of Re A.Y. it records that Wells J noted the treatment was less than 40 per cent likely to be effective, was not ‘essential’, and was contrary to the mature adolescent’s wishes, so that he was not a child in need of protection. At para. 128 the Chief Justice describes the same boy as ‘a 15-year-old boy suffering from terminal cancer’.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for Supreme Court of Canada, A.C. v. Manitoba (Director of Child and Family Services), 2009 SCC 30, [2009] 2 S.C.R. 181
Nota de confianza.The official Supreme Court of Canada PDF of the judgment was downloaded from decisions.scc-csc.ca (with a Referer header, since the file otherwise returns 403), converted to text with pdftotext and read; paragraphs 62, 63 and 128 were confirmed word for word.
Notes.This is the best available confirmation of the citations for the Kosack and Yeatts proceedings. Neither law report was opened directly; CanLII is bot-blocked in this environment.
Consultado. 19 de septiembre de 2026 · Identificador de la fuente.src-g94d-scc-ac-paras-62-63
Declaración explícita · 13 de septiembre de 1993Verificado
Tras la vista, el médico que lo atendía dijo a Adrian Yeatts que le quedaban una o dos semanas de vida; vivió ocho semanas más, se bautizó en un tanque de fisioterapia de un hospital el 12 de septiembre de 1993 y murió al día siguiente. Source: Awake!, 22 de mayo de 1994Source: Awake!, 22 de mayo de 1994
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Publicación primaria de los testigos de JehováVerificado
Nota de procedencia y verificación for Awake!, He ‘Remembered His Creator in the Days of His Youth’
Nota de confianza.Opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026 and the wording, page marker and paragraph confirmed against the article text.
22 de mayo de 1994 · p.8 · par. 42 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“So the nurses kindly arranged for him to use one of the stainless steel tanks in the physiotherapy room. He was baptized there September 12; he died the next day, September 13.”
The closing of the mother’s account. Baptism is the act by which a person formally becomes one of Jehovah’s Witnesses; Adrian was baptised the day before he died, having refused blood since March of that year.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for Awake!, He ‘Remembered His Creator in the Days of His Youth’
Nota de confianza.Opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026 and the wording, page marker and paragraph confirmed against the article text.
Declaración explícita · 22 de mayo de 1994Verificado
El artículo se cierra con la voz de la propia revista: ‘By rejecting blood transfusions that could conceivably have extended his present life, Adrian Yeatts showed himself to be one of the many young people who put God first.’ Source: Awake!, 22 de mayo de 1994Source: Awake!, 22 de mayo de 1994
La posición de la organización o su explicación posterior: JW.org califica actualmente de mito la afirmación de que los Testigos, incluidos los niños, mueren cada año por rechazar la sangre, y añade que ‘no one can say for certain that a patient will die because of refusing blood or will live because of accepting it’.
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Publicación primaria de los testigos de JehováVerificado
22 de mayo de 1994 · p.8 · par. 45 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“By rejecting blood transfusions that could conceivably have extended his present life, Adrian Yeatts showed himself to be one of the many young people who put God first.”
The final sentence of the article, written in the magazine’s own voice rather than a family member’s.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for Awake!, He ‘Remembered His Creator in the Days of His Youth’
Nota de confianza.Opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026 and the wording, page marker and paragraph confirmed against the article text.
22 de mayo de 1994 · p.2 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“In former times thousands of youths died for putting God first. They are still doing it, only today the drama is played out in hospitals and courtrooms, with blood transfusions the issue.”
The contents page introduces the series ‘Youths Who Put God First’ on pages 3–15. It does not name or count the young people pictured on the cover.
Notes.The cover (a montage of photographs of young people beneath the title) is not reproduced on the Online Library; a low-resolution scan hosted by a discovery site was viewed but the number of people pictured could not be reliably counted from it.
Consultado. 19 de septiembre de 2026 · Identificador de la fuente.src-g-1994-0522-contents
El segundo artículo, «Jóvenes con “poder que es más allá de lo normal”», presenta a otros cuatro jóvenes. La primera es Lenae Martinez, de doce años, de Fresno (California).
At 6:30 a.m., September 22, 1993, Lenae fell asleep in death in the arms of her mother.
Declaración explícita · septiembre de 1993Verificado
Los médicos dijeron a Lenae Martinez, de doce años, con sus padres fuera de la habitación, que las transfusiones prolongarían su vida entre unos tres y seis meses y que sin sangre moriría en cuestión de días; ella respondió que no se apartaría de Dios ‘for six months of life’. Source: Awake!, 22 de mayo de 1994
La posición de la organización o su explicación posterior: El artículo presenta la conversación como prueba de su madurez, y deja constancia de que los médicos y el abogado salieron y dijeron a sus padres que ‘she thinks and talks like an adult and is able to make her own decisions’.
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Publicación primaria de los testigos de JehováVerificado
22 de mayo de 1994 · p.10 · pars. 12-17 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
““But blood transfusions will prolong your life. If you refuse blood, you will die in a few days.” “If I take blood,” Lenae asked, “how long will that prolong my life?” “About three to six months,” they answered.”
Two doctors and a lawyer spoke to Lenae Martinez, 12, alone at Valley Children’s Hospital, Fresno, California, having asked her parents to leave. She replied that she would not turn away from God ‘for six months of life’.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for Awake!, Youths Who Have “Power Beyond What Is Normal”
Nota de confianza.Opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026 and the wording, page marker and paragraph confirmed against the article text.
Declaración explícita · 22 de septiembre de 1993Verificado
En el caso de Lenae Martinez no se solicitó ninguna orden judicial: un comité de ética hospitalaria del Valley Children’s Hospital de Fresno, en el que participó un profesor de ética de la Fresno State University, la trató como menor madura, y ella murió a las 6:30 de la mañana del 22 de septiembre de 1993. Source: Awake!, 22 de mayo de 1994Source: Awake!, 22 de mayo de 1994
La posición de la organización o su explicación posterior: El artículo deja constancia de que sus padres y sus amigos estaban ‘deeply grateful’ de que el hospital hubiera reconocido su madurez y de que no hiciera falta ningún proceso judicial.
Mostrar las pruebas (2 fuentes)
Publicación primaria de los testigos de JehováVerificado
22 de mayo de 1994 · p.10 · par. 18 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“This committee, made up of doctors and other health-care professionals, along with a professor of ethics from Fresno State University, made the decision to allow Lenae to make her own decisions with regard to her medical treatment. They considered Lenae a mature minor. No court order was sought.”
The article records that the hospital’s ethics committee, not a court, decided that Lenae was a mature minor. Hers is the only one of the four accounts in this article in which no court became involved.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for Awake!, Youths Who Have “Power Beyond What Is Normal”
Nota de confianza.Opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026 and the wording, page marker and paragraph confirmed against the article text.
22 de mayo de 1994 · p.10 · pars. 19-20 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“After a long, difficult night, at 6:30 a.m., September 22, 1993, Lenae fell asleep in death in the arms of her mother. … There were 482 who attended the memorial service, including doctors, nurses, and teachers, who had been impressed by Lenae’s faith and integrity.”
The article gives the date and hour of death and the attendance at the memorial service, and adds that her parents and friends were ‘deeply grateful’ that no court case had been necessary.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for Awake!, Youths Who Have “Power Beyond What Is Normal”
Nota de confianza.Opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026 and the wording, page marker and paragraph confirmed against the article text.
Lisa Kosack, de doce años, de Toronto, fue el objeto del procedimiento judicial de Ontario que suele citarse como Re L.D.K. El artículo recoge su propio relato de la noche en que la transfundieron por primera vez.
She died peacefully at home, in the loving arms of her mother and father.
Lisa Kosack, de doce años, describió que le hicieron una transfusión a medianoche en su primera noche en el Hospital for Sick Children de Toronto, después de haber dicho a la enfermera que era testigo de Jehová; el hospital solicitó una orden judicial a la mañana siguiente y, tras una vista de cinco días celebrada en el propio hospital, el juez Main concluyó que se la había discriminado por motivos de religión y de edad según el artículo 15(1) de la Carta canadiense y que se había vulnerado su derecho a la seguridad de la persona reconocido en el artículo 7. Source: Awake!, 22 de mayo de 1994Source: Awake!, 22 de mayo de 1994Source: Awake!, 22 de mayo de 1994
La posición de la organización o su explicación posterior: El juez la describió como ‘a beautiful, extremely intelligent, articulate, courteous, sensitive and, most importantly, a courageous person’, con ‘wisdom and maturity well beyond her years’, y desestimó la solicitud.
Mostrar las pruebas (3 fuentes)
Publicación primaria de los testigos de JehováVerificado
22 de mayo de 1994 · p.12 · par. 32 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“At midnight a nurse came in and said: ‘I have to give you some blood.’ I cried out: ‘I can’t take blood because I’m one of Jehovah’s Witnesses! I hope you know that! I hope you know that!’ ‘Well, yes, I do,’ she said, and immediately pulled out my IV and shoved in the blood. I was crying and becoming hysterical.”
Lisa Kosack’s own account, quoted in the article, of her first night at the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto. She was 12 and had acute myeloid leukaemia. The hospital sought a court order the following morning.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for Awake!, Youths Who Have “Power Beyond What Is Normal”
Nota de confianza.Opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026 and the wording, page marker and paragraph confirmed against the article text.
22 de mayo de 1994 · p.14 · pars. 46-51 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“I must find that she has been discriminated against on the basis of her religion and her age pursuant to s. 15(1). In these circumstances, upon being given a blood transfusion, her right to the security of her person pursuant to s. 7 was infringed.”
Extracts printed in the article from the decision of Judge Main. The sections cited are sections 7 and 15(1) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. He also said he refused to make any order that would put the child through the ordeal of a forced transfusion, described her as ‘courageous’ with ‘wisdom and maturity well beyond her years’, and dismissed the application.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for Awake!, Youths Who Have “Power Beyond What Is Normal”
Nota de confianza.Opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026 and the wording, page marker and paragraph confirmed against the article text.
Notes.Reported as Re L.D.K. (1985), 48 R.F.L. (2d) 164 (Ont. Prov. Ct. (Fam. Div.)). The law report itself was not opened; the citation is confirmed from the Supreme Court of Canada.
Consultado. 19 de septiembre de 2026 · Identificador de la fuente.src-g94d-kosack-judgment
Publicación primaria de los testigos de JehováVerificado
22 de mayo de 1994 · pp.13-14 · pars. 35-44 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
““Do you want to die?” “No, I don’t think anybody wants to die, but if I do die I’m not going to be scared, because I know that I have the hope of everlasting life in a paradise on earth.””
Lisa gave evidence on the fourth day of a five-day hearing held in a room at the hospital before Judge David R. Main, with Lisa present throughout. The article reports that the doctors prescribed multiple transfusions and intensive chemotherapy and put the rate of cure at 30 per cent.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for Awake!, Youths Who Have “Power Beyond What Is Normal”
Nota de confianza.Opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026 and the wording, page marker and paragraph confirmed against the article text.
El procedimiento que describe el artículo figura publicado como Re L.D.K. (1985), 48 R.F.L. (2d) 164 (Ontario Provincial Court, Family Division); el Tribunal Supremo de Canadá lo resumió en A.C. v. Manitoba, y dejó constancia de que dos médicos cifraron las probabilidades de un desenlace favorable en torno al treinta por ciento y de que el juez concluyó que el tratamiento forzoso causaría un trauma emocional superior al beneficio previsto. Source: Supreme Court of Canada, 26 de junio de 2009Source: Awake!, 22 de mayo de 1994
26 de junio de 2009 · pp.[2009] 2 S.C.R. 181 at 221-222 · paras. 62-63 (and para. 128 per McLachlin CJ) · Abella J · Supreme Court of Canada
“In Re L.D.K. (1985), 48 R.F.L. (2d) 164 (Ont. Prov. Ct. (Fam. Div.)), for example, the patient was a 12-year-old girl suffering from acute myeloid leukaemia. … In Re A.Y. (1993), 111 Nfld. & P.E.I.R. 91 (Nfld. S.C.), the court was faced with an application from the Director of Child Welfare to impose treatment on a 15-year-old Jehovah’s Witness who had cancer.”
The Supreme Court of Canada’s own summary of the two Canadian decisions described in the 22 May 1994 Awake!. Of Re L.D.K. the Court records that two doctors put the odds of a favourable outcome at around 30 per cent, that Main Prov. Ct. J. found ‘the emotional trauma [the child] would experience’ in forced treatment would outweigh the anticipated benefits (p. 169), and that he concluded ‘[T]his child’s life is equally in danger whichever path is taken’ (p. 170). Of Re A.Y. it records that Wells J noted the treatment was less than 40 per cent likely to be effective, was not ‘essential’, and was contrary to the mature adolescent’s wishes, so that he was not a child in need of protection. At para. 128 the Chief Justice describes the same boy as ‘a 15-year-old boy suffering from terminal cancer’.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for Supreme Court of Canada, A.C. v. Manitoba (Director of Child and Family Services), 2009 SCC 30, [2009] 2 S.C.R. 181
Nota de confianza.The official Supreme Court of Canada PDF of the judgment was downloaded from decisions.scc-csc.ca (with a Referer header, since the file otherwise returns 403), converted to text with pdftotext and read; paragraphs 62, 63 and 128 were confirmed word for word.
Notes.This is the best available confirmation of the citations for the Kosack and Yeatts proceedings. Neither law report was opened directly; CanLII is bot-blocked in this environment.
Consultado. 19 de septiembre de 2026 · Identificador de la fuente.src-g94d-scc-ac-paras-62-63
Publicación primaria de los testigos de JehováVerificado
22 de mayo de 1994 · p.14 · pars. 46-51 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“I must find that she has been discriminated against on the basis of her religion and her age pursuant to s. 15(1). In these circumstances, upon being given a blood transfusion, her right to the security of her person pursuant to s. 7 was infringed.”
Extracts printed in the article from the decision of Judge Main. The sections cited are sections 7 and 15(1) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. He also said he refused to make any order that would put the child through the ordeal of a forced transfusion, described her as ‘courageous’ with ‘wisdom and maturity well beyond her years’, and dismissed the application.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for Awake!, Youths Who Have “Power Beyond What Is Normal”
Nota de confianza.Opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026 and the wording, page marker and paragraph confirmed against the article text.
Notes.Reported as Re L.D.K. (1985), 48 R.F.L. (2d) 164 (Ont. Prov. Ct. (Fam. Div.)). The law report itself was not opened; the citation is confirmed from the Supreme Court of Canada.
Consultado. 19 de septiembre de 2026 · Identificador de la fuente.src-g94d-kosack-judgment
De una joven de diecisiete años de Chicago, a la que la revista nombra y los tribunales de Illinois anonimizaron como E.G., consta que sobrevivió. El caso llegó al Tribunal Supremo de Illinois, y su sentencia se sigue citando en la doctrina jurídica sobre los menores maduros. Aquí empleamos el identificador del tribunal, porque el argumento no necesita su nombre.
El artículo deja constancia de que, después de que el tribunal de primera instancia de Chicago determinara que E.G., de diecisiete años, era una menor madura, aun así autorizó la transfusión, y de que ‘the transfusion was forcibly given to Ernestine in spite of her vigorous protests’. Source: Awake!, 22 de mayo de 1994
Mostrar las pruebas (1 fuente)
Publicación primaria de los testigos de JehováVerificado
22 de mayo de 1994 · p.15 · par. 59 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“The court found that Ernestine was a mature 17-year-old, able to make informed medical decisions; yet, amazingly, the court granted an order allowing blood transfusions. At the hospital two doctors were standing by, transfusion equipment set up, and as soon as the court’s decision came in, the transfusion was forcibly given to Ernestine in spite of her vigorous protests.”
The article’s account of the trial-court stage of the Chicago proceedings reported as In re E.G. It names Dr Stanley Yachnin, Dr Ner Littner and the hospital’s attorney Jane McAtee as witnesses, all three of whom appear in the reported judgments.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for Awake!, Youths Who Have “Power Beyond What Is Normal”
Nota de confianza.Opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026 and the wording, page marker and paragraph confirmed against the article text.
Notes.The reported judgments record that E.G. received several transfusions over a period of weeks under a guardianship order, not a single forced transfusion.
Consultado. 19 de septiembre de 2026 · Identificador de la fuente.src-g94d-gregory-forced-transfusion
22 de mayo de 1994 · p.15 · par. 63 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“Ernestine had no further transfusions, and she did not die from her leukemia. Ernestine stood firm and put God first, like the other young people mentioned previously. Each one received “power beyond what is normal.””
The closing sentences of the article, and the only statement in the issue about what happened to E.G. after the litigation.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for Awake!, Youths Who Have “Power Beyond What Is Normal”
Nota de confianza.Opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026 and the wording, page marker and paragraph confirmed against the article text.
22 de mayo de 1994 · pp.11-12 · pars. 28-29 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“This guardianship terminated when Crystal was discharged from the hospital. Crystal never needed blood, and none was ever transfused, but it is shocking to see how the court treated Crystal.”
The order giving the hospital temporary custody was made on 22 June 1989 and allowed transfusion only if ‘necessary to protect and save her life’. The article adds that Crystal afterwards graduated from high school with honours and became a full-time minister. The page 12 marker falls inside the preceding sentence.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for Awake!, Youths Who Have “Power Beyond What Is Normal”
Nota de confianza.Opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026 and the wording, page marker and paragraph confirmed against the article text.
22 de mayo de 1994 · p.7 · pars. 50-54 (box on page 7, ‘Bloodless Heart Transplant’) · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“On October 29, he performed the heart transplant on Chandra without blood. A month later Chandra was reported doing well.”
A box records that three-year-old the three-year-old in Ohio of Cleveland, Ohio, weighing 19 pounds, received a heart transplant without transfusion from Dr Charles Fraser on 29 October 1993, and quotes The Flint Journal of 1 December 1993 for the surgeon’s remarks about bloodless surgery. She is the only one of the six young people named in the issue who did not make the decision herself.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for Awake!, He ‘Remembered His Creator in the Days of His Youth’
Nota de confianza.Opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026 and the wording, page marker and paragraph confirmed against the article text.
La Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc. compareció como amicus curiae ante el Tribunal Supremo de Illinois en In re E.G., representada por Donald T. Ridley, de Brooklyn; la organización fue, por tanto, participante en el litigio que después describió a sus lectores. Source: Illinois Supreme Court, 18 de noviembre de 1989
18 de noviembre de 1989 · pp.133 Ill. 2d 98 · Ryan J · Illinois Supreme Court
“If the evidence is clear and convincing that the minor is mature enough to appreciate the consequences of her actions, and that the minor is mature enough to exercise the judgment of an adult, then the mature minor doctrine affords her the common law right to consent to or refuse medical treatment.”
The passage the 22 May 1994 Awake! quotes, confirmed against the reported text. Opinion filed 18 November 1989; rehearing denied 29 January 1990; Ward and Clark JJ dissenting. The head matter records that the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc. appeared as amicus curiae, by Donald T. Ridley of Brooklyn, New York.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for Illinois Supreme Court, In re E.G., a Minor (The People of the State of Illinois, Appellant, v. E.G., a Minor, Appellee), 133 Ill. 2d 98 (1989), No. 66089
Nota de confianza.The full reported opinion was downloaded from the Caselaw Access Project and read; the quoted sentence, the parties, the date and the amicus entry were confirmed. Justia and CourtListener both refuse automated requests in this environment.
Procedencia del escaneo.Caselaw Access Project (Harvard Law School Library) static distribution of the official Illinois Reports text.
Notes.The Court decided the case on common-law grounds and expressly declined to decide the First Amendment question on which the Appellate Court had relied.
Consultado. 19 de septiembre de 2026 · Identificador de la fuente.src-g94d-ilsc-1989-eg-standard
A seventeen-year-old in New York City is recorded as never having been transfused: “Crystal never needed blood, and none was ever transfused.”Source: Awake!, 22 de mayo de 1994
Declaración explícita · 16 de junio de 1989Respaldado
En una vista convocada en el Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center el 16 de junio de 1989, un médico declaró que, si la joven de diecisiete años de Nueva York se resistía a la transfusión, la ataría a la cama con sujeciones en las muñecas y en las piernas; el artículo deja constancia además de que el juez de primera instancia no le permitió declarar oficialmente, aunque, después de visitarla, dijo de ella que era ‘obviously very intelligent’ y ‘capable of expressing herself fully’. Source: Awake!, 22 de mayo de 1994Source: Awake!, 22 de mayo de 1994
Mostrar las pruebas (2 fuentes)
Publicación primaria de los testigos de JehováVerificado
22 de mayo de 1994 · p.11 · par. 24 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“He further stated that if Crystal tried to resist the transfusions, he would tie her to the bed with wrist and leg restraints to accomplish the procedure. Crystal told the doctors that she would “scream and holler” if they attempted to transfuse her and that as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, she viewed any forcible administration of blood to be as repulsive as rape.”
Evidence at a hearing convened at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, New York, on the morning of 16 June 1989, after the hospital applied to the Supreme Court of the State of New York for authority to transfuse the New York seventeen-year-old, 17, who had inflammatory bowel disease.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for Awake!, Youths Who Have “Power Beyond What Is Normal”
Nota de confianza.Opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026 and the wording, page marker and paragraph confirmed against the article text.
22 de mayo de 1994 · p.11 · pars. 25-26 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“Despite her attorney’s repeated requests at the hearing, Crystal was denied the opportunity to speak for herself before the court to demonstrate her decision-making ability. … After the visit the trial judge said that Crystal was “obviously very intelligent” and “very articulate” and explained that Crystal “certainly was sound in mind” and “capable of expressing herself fully.””
The article states that the judge visited Crystal in her room for about twenty minutes but would not let her give evidence on the record, and characterises this as a denial of due process, bodily self-determination, privacy and religious freedom.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for Awake!, Youths Who Have “Power Beyond What Is Normal”
Nota de confianza.Opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026 and the wording, page marker and paragraph confirmed against the article text.
Declaración explícita · 22 de junio de 1989Respaldado
El tribunal de Nueva York concedió al hospital la custodia temporal de la joven de diecisiete años de Nueva York el 22 de junio de 1989, para transfundirla solo si era necesario para salvarle la vida; el artículo deja constancia de que ‘Crystal never needed blood, and none was ever transfused’, y de que un médico había pronosticado que moriría el 16 de junio. Source: Awake!, 22 de mayo de 1994Source: Awake!, 22 de mayo de 1994
La posición de la organización o su explicación posterior: El artículo extrae la lección de forma explícita: ‘When doctors wanting court orders to give blood declare blatantly that if the judge doesn’t comply immediately, the patient will die, let them remember the case of the New York seventeen-year-old.’ Este es el argumento más fuerte de la organización en ese número y debería citarse.
Mostrar las pruebas (2 fuentes)
Publicación primaria de los testigos de JehováVerificado
22 de mayo de 1994 · pp.11-12 · pars. 28-29 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“This guardianship terminated when Crystal was discharged from the hospital. Crystal never needed blood, and none was ever transfused, but it is shocking to see how the court treated Crystal.”
The order giving the hospital temporary custody was made on 22 June 1989 and allowed transfusion only if ‘necessary to protect and save her life’. The article adds that Crystal afterwards graduated from high school with honours and became a full-time minister. The page 12 marker falls inside the preceding sentence.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for Awake!, Youths Who Have “Power Beyond What Is Normal”
Nota de confianza.Opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026 and the wording, page marker and paragraph confirmed against the article text.
22 de mayo de 1994 · p.11 · par. 24 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“He further stated that if Crystal tried to resist the transfusions, he would tie her to the bed with wrist and leg restraints to accomplish the procedure. Crystal told the doctors that she would “scream and holler” if they attempted to transfuse her and that as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, she viewed any forcible administration of blood to be as repulsive as rape.”
Evidence at a hearing convened at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, New York, on the morning of 16 June 1989, after the hospital applied to the Supreme Court of the State of New York for authority to transfuse the New York seventeen-year-old, 17, who had inflammatory bowel disease.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for Awake!, Youths Who Have “Power Beyond What Is Normal”
Nota de confianza.Opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026 and the wording, page marker and paragraph confirmed against the article text.
A boxed item in the first article adds a sixth case: a three-year-old girl in Ohio, who received a bloodless heart transplant in October 1993 and was “reported doing well” a month later.Source: Awake!, 22 de mayo de 1994
En qué difieren la revista y el registro judicial
Uno de los seis relatos puede compararse directamente con una sentencia publicada, porque el caso lo resolvió el Tribunal Supremo de Illinois y la sentencia consta en los repertorios de jurisprudencia. Los dos relatos no coinciden en todos los detalles. Exponemos la diferencia en lugar de resolverla: la sentencia es el registro más formal, la revista es el relato de la propia organización, y el lector puede sopesarlos.
La posición de la organización o su explicación posterior: La descripción que hace la revista de la decisión de apelación como ‘a two-to-one decision’ es exacta, y la revista cita palabra por palabra el criterio del menor maduro fijado por el Tribunal Supremo de Illinois.
18 de noviembre de 1989 · pp.133 Ill. 2d 98 · Ryan J · Illinois Supreme Court
“On April 8, 1987, further hearings were held on this matter. E.G., having received several blood transfusions, was strong enough to take the stand.”
The reported facts: E.G. was diagnosed in February 1987 with acute nonlymphatic leukaemia; a temporary guardian with power to consent to transfusions was appointed on 25 February 1987; the trial court’s final ruling came on 18 May 1987; E.G. turned 18 on 25 November 1987. The Court also records her evidence that she asked to be sedated before the transfusions and said ‘[I]t seems as if everything that I wanted or believe in was just being disregarded.’ The Appellate Court reports the same events as ‘Appellant began receiving transfusions pursuant to this ruling.’
Notes.The reported facts describe a course of transfusions over roughly six weeks under a guardianship order; the Awake! account describes a single transfusion given ‘in spite of her vigorous protests’.
Consultado. 19 de septiembre de 2026 · Identificador de la fuente.src-g94d-ilsc-1989-eg-transfusions
23 de septiembre de 1987 · pp.161 Ill. App. 3d 765 · White J (Freeman J concurring; McNamara PJ dissenting) · Illinois Appellate Court
“The court found probable cause to believe that appellant was medically neglected and appointed the hospital official temporary custodian with power to consent to all medical treatment. Appellant began receiving transfusions pursuant to this ruling.”
The intermediate decision the Awake! article describes as ‘a two-to-one decision’ — accurately: Justice White wrote, Justice Freeman concurred and Presiding Justice McNamara dissented at length. The court ordered E.G. partially emancipated and granted her the right to accept or refuse transfusions, but affirmed the trial court’s finding that she had been medically neglected.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for Illinois Appellate Court, First District (3rd Division), In re E.G., a Minor, 161 Ill. App. 3d 765 (1987), Nos. 87—1791, 87—2065 cons.
Nota de confianza.The full reported opinion and head matter were downloaded from the Caselaw Access Project on 19 September 2026 and read; the composition of the court and the disposition were confirmed.
Procedencia del escaneo.Caselaw Access Project (Harvard Law School Library) static distribution of the official Illinois Appellate Court Reports text.
Notes.The Illinois Supreme Court later affirmed in part and reversed in part, on common-law rather than constitutional grounds, and remanded for the neglect finding against the mother to be expunged.
Consultado. 19 de septiembre de 2026 · Identificador de la fuente.src-g94d-ilapp-1987-eg
18 de noviembre de 1989 · pp.133 Ill. 2d 98 · Ryan J · Illinois Supreme Court
“If the evidence is clear and convincing that the minor is mature enough to appreciate the consequences of her actions, and that the minor is mature enough to exercise the judgment of an adult, then the mature minor doctrine affords her the common law right to consent to or refuse medical treatment.”
The passage the 22 May 1994 Awake! quotes, confirmed against the reported text. Opinion filed 18 November 1989; rehearing denied 29 January 1990; Ward and Clark JJ dissenting. The head matter records that the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc. appeared as amicus curiae, by Donald T. Ridley of Brooklyn, New York.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for Illinois Supreme Court, In re E.G., a Minor (The People of the State of Illinois, Appellant, v. E.G., a Minor, Appellee), 133 Ill. 2d 98 (1989), No. 66089
Nota de confianza.The full reported opinion was downloaded from the Caselaw Access Project and read; the quoted sentence, the parties, the date and the amicus entry were confirmed. Justia and CourtListener both refuse automated requests in this environment.
Procedencia del escaneo.Caselaw Access Project (Harvard Law School Library) static distribution of the official Illinois Reports text.
Notes.The Court decided the case on common-law grounds and expressly declined to decide the First Amendment question on which the Appellate Court had relied.
Consultado. 19 de septiembre de 2026 · Identificador de la fuente.src-g94d-ilsc-1989-eg-standard
Publicación primaria de los testigos de JehováVerificado
22 de mayo de 1994 · p.15 · par. 59 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“The court found that Ernestine was a mature 17-year-old, able to make informed medical decisions; yet, amazingly, the court granted an order allowing blood transfusions. At the hospital two doctors were standing by, transfusion equipment set up, and as soon as the court’s decision came in, the transfusion was forcibly given to Ernestine in spite of her vigorous protests.”
The article’s account of the trial-court stage of the Chicago proceedings reported as In re E.G. It names Dr Stanley Yachnin, Dr Ner Littner and the hospital’s attorney Jane McAtee as witnesses, all three of whom appear in the reported judgments.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for Awake!, Youths Who Have “Power Beyond What Is Normal”
Nota de confianza.Opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026 and the wording, page marker and paragraph confirmed against the article text.
Notes.The reported judgments record that E.G. received several transfusions over a period of weeks under a guardianship order, not a single forced transfusion.
Consultado. 19 de septiembre de 2026 · Identificador de la fuente.src-g94d-gregory-forced-transfusion
Junto a los relatos personales, el número publicó recuadros que exponían los peligros de las transfusiones. Merece la pena fijarse en cómo están construidos, porque este sitio se somete a un criterio exigente en cuanto a las fuentes y es justo aplicar aquí ese mismo criterio.
Un recuadro de la página 13 reúne ocho citas sobre el riesgo de las transfusiones, tres de ellas atribuidas a un médico al que se nombra y ninguna con indicación de volumen, número o página; la cifra que atribuye al New England Journal of Medicine del 14 de diciembre de 1989 —que una sola unidad de sangre puede contener virus suficiente para causar hasta 1,75 millones de infecciones— se corresponde aritméticamente con la media del título plasmático de 3.500 dosis infecciosas para cultivos celulares por mililitro comunicada en ese número respecto a pacientes con sida, multiplicada por el volumen de una unidad; una dosis infecciosa para cultivos celulares es una medida de laboratorio de la infección de células en cultivo, y ninguno de los dos artículos de ese número trata de transfusiones ni de números de personas infectadas. Source: Awake!, 22 de mayo de 1994Source: The New England Journal of Medicine, 14 de diciembre de 1989Source: The American Journal of Surgery, septiembre de 1986
La posición de la organización o su explicación posterior: El recuadro también cita al profesor Charles H. Baron, de la facultad de Derecho del Boston College, que dice: ‘All of American society has benefited… patients in general, are today less likely to be given unnecessary blood transfusions because of the work of the Witnesses’ Hospital Liaison Committees’. Esta página no evalúa si esa afirmación sobre el ahorro de sangre es correcta; no se consultó ninguna fuente al respecto.
Mostrar las pruebas (3 fuentes)
Publicación primaria de los testigos de JehováVerificado
22 de mayo de 1994 · p.13 · pars. 64-73 (box on page 13, ‘Dangers of Blood Transfusion’) · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“The New England Journal of Medicine, issue of December 14, 1989, reported that a single unit of blood may carry enough AIDS virus to cause up to 1.75 million infections!”
A box set between the Lisa Kosack and E.G. accounts gathers eight short quotations on transfusion risk, from the New England Journal of Medicine, the book Autologous and Directed Blood Programs (1987), Dr Charles Huggins (‘It is the most dangerous substance we use in medicine’), Surgery Annual (‘Clearly, the safest transfusion is the one not given’), Dr John S. Spratt in The American Journal of Surgery of September 1986, Emergency Medicine, Pathologist, and Professor Charles H. Baron of Boston College Law School.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for Awake!, Youths Who Have “Power Beyond What Is Normal”
Nota de confianza.Opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026 and the wording, page marker and paragraph confirmed against the article text.
Notes.The box gives no volume, issue or page number for any of the eight quotations. Three of them name a person (Dr Charles Huggins, Dr John S. Spratt and Dr Charles H. Baron); the other five are attributed only to a journal or a book title.
Consultado. 19 de septiembre de 2026 · Identificador de la fuente.src-g94d-dangers-of-transfusion-box
14 de diciembre de 1989 · pp.321(24):1621-1625 · Ho DD, Moudgil T, Alam M · Massachusetts Medical Society
“The mean titers in plasma were 30, 3500, and 3200 tissue-culture-infective doses (TCID) per milliliter for patients with asymptomatic infection, the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), and the AIDS-related complex, respectively.”
The 22 May 1994 Awake! box on page 13 attributes to ‘The New England Journal of Medicine, issue of December 14, 1989’ the statement that ‘a single unit of blood may carry enough AIDS virus to cause up to 1.75 million infections’. That issue (vol. 321 no. 24) contains two papers reporting HIV titres in blood: this one and Coombs RW et al., ‘Plasma viremia in human immunodeficiency virus infection’, 321(24):1626-1631 (confirmed on PubMed, PMID 2511447). A tissue-culture-infective dose is a laboratory measure of how much virus is needed to infect cells in culture; neither paper discusses transfusion, units of blood, or the number of people who might be infected.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for The New England Journal of Medicine, Quantitation of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 in the blood of infected persons
Nota de confianza.The abstract and bibliographic record were retrieved through the NCBI E-utilities service on 19 September 2026 and read, and retrieved again independently by the auditor; the PubMed web page itself returns HTTP 203 and a cookie wall to automated clients and could not be opened directly. the quoted sentence is from the published abstract. The full text behind the paywall was not opened, and the Awake! box gives no author or page, so the box’s figure could not be traced to a specific sentence in either paper.
Notes.The figure in the Awake! box corresponds arithmetically to this paper: 3,500 tissue-culture-infective doses per millilitre multiplied by the roughly 500 millilitres in a unit of whole blood gives 1,750,000. That correspondence is an inference drawn here, not something either paper states; and the 3,500 figure is the mean plasma titre reported for patients who had AIDS, not a figure for donated blood.
Consultado. 19 de septiembre de 2026 · Identificador de la fuente.src-g94d-nejm-1989-ho
septiembre de 1986 · pp.152(3):337 · Spratt JS · Elsevier
“Blood transfusions and surgery for cancer”
The 22 May 1994 Awake! box on page 13 attributes to ‘Dr. John S. Spratt’ in ‘The American Journal of Surgery, issue of September 1986’ the sentence ‘The cancer surgeon may need to become a bloodless surgeon.’ An article by that author, with that title, in that journal and month does exist.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for The American Journal of Surgery, Blood transfusions and surgery for cancer
Nota de confianza.The bibliographic record was confirmed on 19 September 2026 through the NCBI E-utilities service: Spratt JS, ‘Blood transfusions and surgery for cancer’, Am J Surg 1986 Sep;152(3):337. The PubMed web page itself returns HTTP 203 and a cookie wall to automated clients, so it could not be opened directly. The text of the article was not opened, so the quoted sentence itself is not verified — only the citation.
Notes.The seven other quotations in the same box give no volume or page. Two of them name a person (Dr Charles Huggins and Dr Charles H. Baron) and five are attributed only to a journal or book title; none was traced.
Consultado. 19 de septiembre de 2026 · Identificador de la fuente.src-g94d-spratt-1986
The cover carries the title “Youths Who Put God First” over a montage of photographs of young people, with three figures in the foreground. Commentators frequently state that the cover shows twenty-six children and that all of them died refusing blood. We looked for support for that in the issue itself and did not find it: the contents page and the two articles do not identify the people pictured, do not give a count, and report outcomes only for the six people named above, half of whom the issue says were alive. We viewed a low-resolution scan of the cover hosted by a discovery site and could not reliably count the photographs from it.Source: Awake!, 22 de mayo de 1994
22 de mayo de 1994 · p.2 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“In former times thousands of youths died for putting God first. They are still doing it, only today the drama is played out in hospitals and courtrooms, with blood transfusions the issue.”
The contents page introduces the series ‘Youths Who Put God First’ on pages 3–15. It does not name or count the young people pictured on the cover.
Notes.The cover (a montage of photographs of young people beneath the title) is not reproduced on the Online Library; a low-resolution scan hosted by a discovery site was viewed but the number of people pictured could not be reliably counted from it.
Consultado. 19 de septiembre de 2026 · Identificador de la fuente.src-g-1994-0522-contents
Publicación primaria de los testigos de JehováVerificado
22 de mayo de 1994 · pp.3-8 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“I just could not live with myself if I am given blood.”
The article, narrated by his father, describes Adrian Yeatts of Newfoundland, Canada, aged 14, diagnosed with a fast-growing abdominal lymphoma in March 1993 and subsequently leukaemia. Newfoundland’s Supreme Court (Justice Robert Wells) held in July 1993 that he was a mature minor whose refusal of blood would be respected. He was baptised in a hospital physiotherapy tank on 12 September 1993 and the article records that he died the next day. A boxed item describes a bloodless heart transplant for three-year-old the three-year-old in Ohio of Ohio in October 1993, reported a month later as doing well. The article also records the medical advice as the family reported it: Dr Jardine 'explained that a very aggressive chemotherapy program with blood transfusions was the only way Adrian could possibly live'; 'chemotherapy was started, without the transfusions'; and it closes by saying that he rejected transfusions 'that could conceivably have extended his present life'.
22 de mayo de 1994 · pp.9-15 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“After a long, difficult night, at 6:30 a.m., September 22, 1993, Lenae fell asleep in death in the arms of her mother.”
The article profiles four young people: Lenae Martinez, 12, Fresno, California, leukaemia — recorded as having died on 22 September 1993; the New York seventeen-year-old, 17, New York City, inflammatory bowel disease — ‘Crystal never needed blood, and none was ever transfused’; Lisa Kosack, 12, Toronto, acute myeloid leukaemia — ‘She died peacefully at home, in the loving arms of her mother and father’; E.G., 17, Chicago, leukaemia — ‘Ernestine had no further transfusions, and she did not die from her leukemia.’ E.G. (par. 59) was transfused once under a trial-court order 'in spite of her vigorous protests'; the Illinois Appellate Court and the Illinois Supreme Court then upheld her right to refuse (pars. 60-61), and the article records that she 'had no further transfusions, and she did not die from her leukemia' (par. 63).
Nota de procedencia y verificación for Awake!, Youths Who Have ‘Power Beyond What Is Normal’
Nota de confianza.Opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026; names, ages, places and outcome sentences confirmed from the article text.
Notes.Together with the first article, the issue names six young people: three recorded as having died and three recorded as alive at the time of writing.
Consultado. 19 de septiembre de 2026 · Identificador de la fuente.src-g-1994-0522-power-beyond-normal
La portada lleva la cabecera de la revista, la línea de fecha ‘May 22, 1994’ y, en un recuadro que cruza el tercio inferior, el título ‘Youths Who Put God First’; en primer plano aparecen fotografiados en color tres jóvenes, de pie ante un muro de pequeños retratos fotográficos de jóvenes impresos en una tinta pálida, algunos de ellos solapados, cortados por el borde de la página u ocultos tras la cabecera y las figuras del primer plano. Source: JWfacts.com, 19 de septiembre de 2026
The cover carries the Awake! masthead with the date line ‘May 22, 1994’ and, in a bordered blue panel across the lower third, the title ‘Youths Who Put God First’ in yellow capitals. In front of a wall of small portrait photographs of young people, overlapping and printed in a pale washed-out tint, stand three young people photographed in full colour: a girl on the left, a boy in the centre and a girl on the right, all smiling at the camera. The background photographs are partly hidden by the masthead at the top and by the three foreground figures at the bottom, and some are cut off by the edge of the page.
No online copy located.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for JWfacts.com, Scan of the cover of Awake!, 22 May 1994, on the page ‘Blood Transfusions’
Nota de confianza.The image was downloaded and viewed on 19 September 2026 and enlarged for examination; the description is of what can be seen in that scan. It is a low-resolution third-party scan with no stated provenance, so it is not treated as a verified reproduction of the printed cover. No reliable count of the background photographs can be made from it: the rows overlap, are obscured and are cropped at the page edge. At least twenty background portraits are at least partly visible.
Notes.Recorded for location and description only. The site should describe the cover in words and, if it points anywhere at all, link rather than rehost.
Consultado. 19 de septiembre de 2026 · Identificador de la fuente.src-g94d-cover-scan-jwfacts
19 de septiembre de 2026 · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania
“cvr_placeholder.jpg”
The organisation publishes no image of this issue’s cover. The JW.org page for the 22 May 1994 Awake! renders a generic cover placeholder in place of a cover image; the Watchtower Online Library carries the text of the twelve articles with no illustrations, though it retains the printed issue’s picture and picture-credit lines for pages 16, 19, 21, 23, 26, 31 and 32; and the official publication file offered by the JW.org pub-media service (g_E_19940522.jwpub) contains a text-only database whose multimedia table is empty. No PDF or EPUB edition is offered for this issue.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for JW.org / Watchtower Online Library, Awake!, 22 May 1994 — the official digital editions
Nota de confianza.The JW.org magazine page, the Watchtower Online Library issue listing and article pages, the pub-media response for pub=g and issue=19940522, and the publication database inside the official .jwpub file were each opened on 19 September 2026. The quoted string is the file name of the placeholder image served on the JW.org page.
22 de mayo de 1994 · pp.1-32 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“He ‘Remembered His Creator in the Days of His Youth’ … Youths Who Have “Power Beyond What Is Normal””
The issue runs to 32 pages and contains twelve items. The official publication file records the page range of each: Page Two (2); ‘He “Remembered His Creator in the Days of His Youth”’ (3-8); ‘Youths Who Have “Power Beyond What Is Normal”’ (9-15); ‘Alligators—Rare, White, and Blue-Eyed!’ (16-17); ‘What If I Fall For an Unbeliever?’ (18-20); ‘Is the Bible Irrelevant?’ (21); ‘Your Chop Your Signature’ (22-24); ‘Put Humor Into Your Life’ (25-27); ‘Watching the World’ (28-29); ‘From Our Readers’ (30); ‘Contaminated Blood Given to Hemophiliacs’ (31); ‘The “Godly Fear” District Convention Is At Hand’ (32). The two blood articles occupy pages 3-15, thirteen of the issue's thirty-two pages. Neither of them is headed ‘Youths Who Put God First’: that is the cover title. Inside the issue the phrase occurs only in the page 2 contents item, which reads ‘Youths Who Put God First 3-15’ (Watchtower Online Library document 101994360, par. 2; src-g-1994-0522-contents), and in the magazine’s own 1994 annual index.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for Awake!, Awake!, 22 May 1994 (complete issue; official publication file g_E_19940522.jwpub)
Nota de confianza.The issue listing was opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026, and the official publication file g_E_19940522.jwpub (linked from the JW.org pub-media service at https://cfp2.jw-cdn.org/a/044135e/2/o/g_E_19940522.jwpub) was downloaded and its publication database read directly; the twelve documents and their first and last page numbers are taken from that file. Both steps were repeated independently by the auditor on 19 September 2026: the twelve rows of the Document table and their FirstPageNumber and LastPageNumber values match, and the pub-media service offers this issue in JWPUB format only, with an empty pubImage entry.
Notes.The official publication file contains no multimedia records at all (the Multimedia, DocumentMultimedia and ExtractMultimedia tables are empty and the manifest lists no images), so the authorised digital edition of this issue carries no photographs or illustrations. The printed issue did carry pictures: the Watchtower Online Library text retains picture and picture-credit lines for pages 16, 19, 21, 23, 26, 31 and 32. There is no such line in either of the two blood articles.
Consultado. 19 de septiembre de 2026 · Identificador de la fuente.src-g94d-issue-contents-map
La afirmación, muy repetida, de que la portada muestra a veintiséis niños que murieron todos por rechazar la sangre no puede establecerse: la cifra no aparece en ninguna parte del número, el único sitio consultado para este registro no da ninguna fuente, la única imagen de la portada en uno de esos sitios es un derivado recortado y no un escaneo, y los retratos del fondo en el único escaneo localizado no pueden contarse con fiabilidad porque se solapan y están parcialmente ocultos. Source: AvoidJW.org, 20 de marzo de 2026 (unverified)Source: JWfacts.com, 19 de septiembre de 2026Source: Awake!, 22 de mayo de 1994
A representative statement of the widely repeated claim that the cover pictures twenty-six children who all died refusing blood. The page gives no source for the figure and none for the assertion that those pictured died.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for AvoidJW.org, Jehovah’s Witnesses Change Blood Doctrine — What About the Losses?
Nota de confianza.The page and its banner image were opened on 19 September 2026, and again independently by the auditor; the page carries the line ‘Published: March 20th, 2026’ and the phrase quoted above appears on it verbatim. The figure of twenty-six appears nowhere in the magazine, is not sourced on this page, and could not be confirmed from the only cover scan located; the image on the page is a derivative graphic and is not evidence of a count.
Procedencia del escaneo.Banner image hosted by AvoidJW.org. On inspection it is not a scan of the cover but a cropped, re-tinted derivative showing only the three foreground figures and a fragment of the background, with the masthead, the date line and the title panel removed. The copy consulted is hosted by a third party and its lawfulness is not established, so no link to it is published here.
Notes.Recorded so that the site can explain, and decline to repeat, the claim — not as evidence for it.
Consultado. 19 de septiembre de 2026 · Identificador de la fuente.src-g94d-cover-claim-avoidjw
The cover carries the Awake! masthead with the date line ‘May 22, 1994’ and, in a bordered blue panel across the lower third, the title ‘Youths Who Put God First’ in yellow capitals. In front of a wall of small portrait photographs of young people, overlapping and printed in a pale washed-out tint, stand three young people photographed in full colour: a girl on the left, a boy in the centre and a girl on the right, all smiling at the camera. The background photographs are partly hidden by the masthead at the top and by the three foreground figures at the bottom, and some are cut off by the edge of the page.
No online copy located.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for JWfacts.com, Scan of the cover of Awake!, 22 May 1994, on the page ‘Blood Transfusions’
Nota de confianza.The image was downloaded and viewed on 19 September 2026 and enlarged for examination; the description is of what can be seen in that scan. It is a low-resolution third-party scan with no stated provenance, so it is not treated as a verified reproduction of the printed cover. No reliable count of the background photographs can be made from it: the rows overlap, are obscured and are cropped at the page edge. At least twenty background portraits are at least partly visible.
Notes.Recorded for location and description only. The site should describe the cover in words and, if it points anywhere at all, link rather than rehost.
Consultado. 19 de septiembre de 2026 · Identificador de la fuente.src-g94d-cover-scan-jwfacts
Publicación primaria de los testigos de JehováVerificado
22 de mayo de 1994 · p.2 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“In former times thousands of youths died for putting God first. They are still doing it, only today the drama is played out in hospitals and courtrooms, with blood transfusions the issue.”
The contents page introduces the series ‘Youths Who Put God First’ on pages 3–15. It does not name or count the young people pictured on the cover.
Notes.The cover (a montage of photographs of young people beneath the title) is not reproduced on the Online Library; a low-resolution scan hosted by a discovery site was viewed but the number of people pictured could not be reliably counted from it.
Consultado. 19 de septiembre de 2026 · Identificador de la fuente.src-g-1994-0522-contents
Esto importa por la misma razón por la que importa todo lo que hay en este sitio. Lo documentado es ya bastante grave: la propia revista de la organización describió a niños que morían por la cuestión de la sangre y presentó eso como poner a Dios en primer lugar. Exagerarlo sería inexacto, y la inexactitud cuesta la confianza del lector.
Qué ocurrió después
El número no fue un hecho aislado, y no ha sido retirado.
Declaración explícita · 8 de diciembre de 1994Verificado
La organización publicó respuestas de los lectores a la serie en ¡Despertad! del 22 de octubre y del 8 de diciembre de 1994, entre ellas la de un joven de diecisiete años de Alemania que escribió: ‘Dying doesn’t scare me, but the thought of disregarding Jehovah’s laws does’, y la de una persona de dieciocho años de Nigeria que ‘could not stop crying when I came to see that these faithful children died’. Source: Awake!, 8 de diciembre de 1994Source: Awake!, 22 de octubre de 1994
La posición de la organización o su explicación posterior: Las cartas fueron seleccionadas e impresas por la revista, y son el propio testimonio de la organización sobre cómo quería que se leyera la serie y cómo la entendía.
Mostrar las pruebas (2 fuentes)
Publicación primaria de los testigos de JehováVerificado
8 de diciembre de 1994 · p.30 · pars. 2-15 (‘Faithful Youths’) · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“I am 18 years old. I was thrilled and shaken when I read the articles yesterday. I could not stop crying when I came to see that these faithful children died. Their faith has made me ask myself whether I could, under such conditions, keep my integrity.”
Seven reader letters printed under the heading ‘Faithful Youths’, from the United States, Germany (two), Austria, Nigeria, Italy and Japan. Another, from a 17-year-old in Germany, reads: ‘I am 17 years old and have been afraid of finding myself in such a situation one day. Dying doesn’t scare me, but the thought of disregarding Jehovah’s laws does. It would be awful to give in under pressure. The article gave me much strength.’ A third says the writer afterwards read the booklet How Can Blood Save Your Life? and ‘now know[s] how to behave should I ever be in a similar situation’.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for Awake!, From Our Readers
Nota de confianza.Opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026 and the wording, page marker and paragraph confirmed against the article text.
Notes.These are letters the organisation itself selected and published, and are evidence of how the series was received and of the use to which it was put.
Consultado. 19 de septiembre de 2026 · Identificador de la fuente.src-g94d-readers-1994-1208
Publicación primaria de los testigos de JehováVerificado
22 de octubre de 1994 · p.30 · par. 13 (letter under the running head ‘Youths Resist Blood Transfusions’); signature at par. 14 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“I am 12 years old, and I have just read the series “Youths Who Put God First.” (May 22, 1994) I was very impressed by the courage that these young Christian brothers and sisters showed, facing death with such confidence in Jehovah and in the resurrection. Their courage and faith in Jehovah made me weep with joy.”
The first published reader response to the series, signed ‘B. C. R., Spain’, printed under the heading ‘Youths Resist Blood Transfusions’ five months after the issue.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for Awake!, From Our Readers
Nota de confianza.Opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026 and the wording, page marker and paragraph confirmed against the article text.
La posición de la organización o su explicación posterior: El artículo de 1995 presenta el desenlace como un beneficio para todos, y cita un editorial del Telegraph Journal según el cual la decisión fue ‘a victory not just for Jehovah’s Witnesses, but for us all’, y al Canadian Medical Association Journal sobre las pautas que sentó.
Mostrar las pruebas (3 fuentes)
Publicación primaria de los testigos de JehováVerificado
22 de enero de 1995 · pp.11-15 · pars. 3-4, 39-40 · Awake! correspondent in Canada · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“Joshua died October 4, 1994.”
Eight months after the ‘Youths Who Put God First’ issue, Awake! carried a five-page account of Joshua Walker, 15, of New Brunswick, who had acute myeloid leukaemia. It quotes Chief Justice W. L. Hoyt of the New Brunswick Court of Appeal (‘The evidence here is overwhelming that Joshua is sufficiently mature’), a Telegraph Journal editorial calling the decision ‘a victory not just for Jehovah’s Witnesses, but for us all’, and the Canadian Medical Association Journal. The article’s final line, standing on its own, records his death.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for Awake!, Joshua’s Faith—A Victory for Children’s Rights
Nota de confianza.Opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026 and the wording, page marker and paragraph confirmed against the article text.
Notes.The appeal is reported as Region 2 Hospital Corp. v. Walker (1994), 150 N.B.R. (2d) 366 (C.A.), a citation confirmed from the Supreme Court of Canada in A.C. v. Manitoba.
Consultado. 19 de septiembre de 2026 · Identificador de la fuente.src-g94d-walker-1995
Publicación primaria de los testigos de JehováVerificado
1 de julio de 1994 · pp.29-31 · pars. 1-5 · As told by friends of Brunella Inconditi · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania
“Two days before she expected to symbolize her dedication by water baptism, Brunella learned that she had leukemia.”
Six weeks after the Awake! series, The Watchtower carried a comparable account of Brunella Inconditi of Montreal, who learned she had leukaemia in July 1990 at the age of 15. The current Watch Tower index tags the article ‘(blood case)’.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for The Watchtower, “I Have Observed the Faith”
Nota de confianza.Opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026 and the wording, page marker and paragraph confirmed against the article text.
The organisation’s current cumulative index, covering 1986 to 2026, lists these young people by name under Canada, each tagged ‘(blood case)’, together with ‘Inconditi, Brunella (blood case): w94 7/1 29-31’ and ‘Cadoreth, April: kr 162-164’. The index also supplies the page range of each account.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for Watch Tower Publications Index 1986-2026, Canada (subheading ‘persons’)
Nota de confianza.Opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026, the day after the announced change to the blood position; the entries and page ranges were read from the index page itself.
Notes.The index is the organisation’s own finding aid. Its continued listing of these accounts as ‘blood case’ entries is the clearest available evidence that the 1994 and 1995 articles remain part of the published corpus.
Consultado. 19 de septiembre de 2026 · Identificador de la fuente.src-g94d-wt-index-1986-2026-canada
The organisation’s current cumulative index, covering 1986 to 2026, lists these young people by name under Canada, each tagged ‘(blood case)’, together with ‘Inconditi, Brunella (blood case): w94 7/1 29-31’ and ‘Cadoreth, April: kr 162-164’. The index also supplies the page range of each account.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for Watch Tower Publications Index 1986-2026, Canada (subheading ‘persons’)
Nota de confianza.Opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026, the day after the announced change to the blood position; the entries and page ranges were read from the index page itself.
Notes.The index is the organisation’s own finding aid. Its continued listing of these accounts as ‘blood case’ entries is the clearest available evidence that the 1994 and 1995 articles remain part of the published corpus.
Consultado. 19 de septiembre de 2026 · Identificador de la fuente.src-g94d-wt-index-1986-2026-canada
Publicación primaria de los testigos de JehováVerificado
22 de mayo de 1994 · pp.3-8 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“I just could not live with myself if I am given blood.”
The article, narrated by his father, describes Adrian Yeatts of Newfoundland, Canada, aged 14, diagnosed with a fast-growing abdominal lymphoma in March 1993 and subsequently leukaemia. Newfoundland’s Supreme Court (Justice Robert Wells) held in July 1993 that he was a mature minor whose refusal of blood would be respected. He was baptised in a hospital physiotherapy tank on 12 September 1993 and the article records that he died the next day. A boxed item describes a bloodless heart transplant for three-year-old the three-year-old in Ohio of Ohio in October 1993, reported a month later as doing well. The article also records the medical advice as the family reported it: Dr Jardine 'explained that a very aggressive chemotherapy program with blood transfusions was the only way Adrian could possibly live'; 'chemotherapy was started, without the transfusions'; and it closes by saying that he rejected transfusions 'that could conceivably have extended his present life'.
22 de mayo de 1994 · pp.9-15 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“After a long, difficult night, at 6:30 a.m., September 22, 1993, Lenae fell asleep in death in the arms of her mother.”
The article profiles four young people: Lenae Martinez, 12, Fresno, California, leukaemia — recorded as having died on 22 September 1993; the New York seventeen-year-old, 17, New York City, inflammatory bowel disease — ‘Crystal never needed blood, and none was ever transfused’; Lisa Kosack, 12, Toronto, acute myeloid leukaemia — ‘She died peacefully at home, in the loving arms of her mother and father’; E.G., 17, Chicago, leukaemia — ‘Ernestine had no further transfusions, and she did not die from her leukemia.’ E.G. (par. 59) was transfused once under a trial-court order 'in spite of her vigorous protests'; the Illinois Appellate Court and the Illinois Supreme Court then upheld her right to refuse (pars. 60-61), and the article records that she 'had no further transfusions, and she did not die from her leukemia' (par. 63).
Nota de procedencia y verificación for Awake!, Youths Who Have ‘Power Beyond What Is Normal’
Nota de confianza.Opened on the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026; names, ages, places and outcome sentences confirmed from the article text.
Notes.Together with the first article, the issue names six young people: three recorded as having died and three recorded as alive at the time of writing.
Consultado. 19 de septiembre de 2026 · Identificador de la fuente.src-g-1994-0522-power-beyond-normal
La actualización del Cuerpo Gobernante del 18 de septiembre de 2026 que convirtió los cuatro componentes principales de la sangre en una decisión personal no hace ninguna referencia a nadie que muriera bajo la postura anterior, ni ninguna a los artículos de 1994 o 1995; solo se refiere al pasado para describir la aplicación anterior que la propia organización hizo del principio y sus Novedades del Cuerpo Gobernante n.º 2 de 2026; su archivo oficial de subtítulos en inglés no contiene ninguna aparición de ‘1994’, ‘young’ ni ‘minor’. Source: JW Broadcasting, 18 de septiembre de 2026Source: JW.org (Questions From Readers), 18 de septiembre de 2026
La posición de la organización o su explicación posterior: El artículo que lo acompaña presenta el cambio como resultado de ‘further prayerful consideration’ y afirma que el Cuerpo Gobernante ‘is not authorized to “go beyond the things that are written”’.
Mostrar las pruebas (2 fuentes)
Publicación primaria de los testigos de JehováVerificado
18 de septiembre de 2026 · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania
“After further prayerful consideration, the Governing Body has decided that this same principle applies to the four primary components of whole blood —that’s red cells, white cells, plasma, and platelets— that are derived from another person’s blood. Therefore, each Christian must make his own personal decision about the use of these four primary components in all medical and surgical care.”
The update announcing the change to the position on blood components. Read in full, the caption file contains no reference to anyone who died under the previous position, no reference to the 1994 or 1995 articles, and no occurrence of ‘1994’, ‘young’ or ‘minor’. The single occurrence of ‘children’ is in the phrase ‘to take the lives of unborn children’; the single occurrence of ‘previous’ concerns a convention announcement.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for JW Broadcasting, 2026 Governing Body Update #6 (official English subtitle file)
Nota de confianza.The official caption file was downloaded again on 19 September 2026 by the auditor, stripped of timestamps and read in full (about 10,000 characters); the quotation above is the verbatim caption wording. The wording previously recorded here (‘Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t accept transfusions of whole blood…’) appears neither in this caption file nor on the JW.org news page, and was removed in the independent audit.
Procedencia del escaneo.Official English closed-caption file served by the organisation’s own content delivery network (cfp2.jw-cdn.org) for media item docid-1112024060.
18 de septiembre de 2026 · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania
“After further prayerful consideration, the Governing Body has decided that this same principle applies to the four primary components of whole blood—red cells, white cells, plasma, and platelets—that are derived from another person’s blood. Therefore, each Christian must make his own personal decision about the use of these four primary components in all medical and surgical care.”
The article also states that Witnesses ‘do not accept transfusions of whole blood, nor do we donate blood that would be used as a whole blood transfusion to another person’, that each Christian must decide whether to donate blood ‘for the clearly expressed purpose of providing components or fractions’, and that it reflects what was shared in the 2026 Governing Body Update #6 and will appear in a future issue of The Watchtower.
Notes.The article carries the note: ‘This article reflects what was shared in the 2026 Governing Body Update #6 and will appear in a future issue of The Watchtower.’ It also states the Governing Body ‘is not authorized to “go beyond the things that are written”’ (1 Corinthians 4:6).
Consultado. 19 de septiembre de 2026 · Identificador de la fuente.src-jw-2026-0918-qfr-respect-life
As of 19 September 2026, JW.org’s FAQ on blood transfusions describes the statement that ‘many Witnesses, including children, die each year as a result of refusing blood transfusions’ as a myth, says such patients ‘usually fare as well as or better than those who do accept transfusions’, citing cardiac-surgery and blood-management literature in footnotes, and adds that ‘no one can say for certain that a patient will die because of refusing blood or will live because of accepting it’.Source: JW.org Frequently Asked Questions, 19 de septiembre de 2026The 1994 issue, by contrast, records three deaths among six named children and frames the deaths of youths as continuing. Both statements are the organisation’s. Readers can weigh them together.
Myth: Many Witnesses, including children, die each year as a result of refusing blood transfusions. Fact: This statement is totally unfounded. Surgeons regularly perform such complex procedures as heart operations, orthopedic surgery, and organ transplants without the use of blood transfusions. Patients, including children, who do not receive transfusions usually fare as well as or better than those who do accept transfusions. In any case, no one can say for certain that a patient will die because of refusing blood or will live because of accepting it.
In 1994 the organisation’s published position was the one in the 1990 brochure: Witnesses ‘do not accept transfusions of whole blood, red cells, white cells, platelets, or blood plasma’.Source: How Can Blood Save Your Life? (brochure), 1990The articles say the young people refused ‘blood’ and ‘blood products’ without naming components. On 18 September 2026, red cells, white cells, platelets and plasma from another person became personal decisions.Source: JW.org (Questions From Readers), 18 de septiembre de 2026
1990 · footnote to par. 12 · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania
“Witnesses do not accept transfusions of whole blood, red cells, white cells, platelets, or blood plasma.”
The footnote continues by referring readers to The Watchtower of 1 June 1990, pages 30–31, for minor fractions such as immune globulin. The section describes non-blood volume expanders (saline, dextran, Haemaccel, lactated Ringer’s solution, hetastarch) as acceptable.
Nota de procedencia y verificación for How Can Blood Save Your Life? (brochure), Quality Alternatives to Transfusion
Nota de confianza.Text opened on JW.org on 19 September 2026 and the footnote wording confirmed. The 1990 publication year is the brochure’s own imprint date as catalogued by the Watchtower Online Library (publication code hb); the JW.org page does not display a year.
15 de octubre de 2000 · pp.30-31 · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania
“Hence, we do not donate blood, nor do we store for transfusion our blood that should be ‘poured out.’ That practice conflicts with God’s law.”
The question asked was: ‘In the light of Bible commands about the proper use of blood, how do Jehovah’s Witnesses view medical procedures using one’s own blood?’ The article said that depositing one’s own blood weeks before surgery ‘directly contradicts’ Leviticus and Deuteronomy, while procedures in which the patient’s blood stays in a continuous circuit (haemodilution, cell salvage, heart-lung machines, dialysis) were left for each Christian to decide.
18 de septiembre de 2026 · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania
“After further prayerful consideration, the Governing Body has decided that this same principle applies to the four primary components of whole blood—red cells, white cells, plasma, and platelets—that are derived from another person’s blood. Therefore, each Christian must make his own personal decision about the use of these four primary components in all medical and surgical care.”
The article also states that Witnesses ‘do not accept transfusions of whole blood, nor do we donate blood that would be used as a whole blood transfusion to another person’, that each Christian must decide whether to donate blood ‘for the clearly expressed purpose of providing components or fractions’, and that it reflects what was shared in the 2026 Governing Body Update #6 and will appear in a future issue of The Watchtower.
Notes.The article carries the note: ‘This article reflects what was shared in the 2026 Governing Body Update #6 and will appear in a future issue of The Watchtower.’ It also states the Governing Body ‘is not authorized to “go beyond the things that are written”’ (1 Corinthians 4:6).
Consultado. 19 de septiembre de 2026 · Identificador de la fuente.src-jw-2026-0918-qfr-respect-life
No decimos que ninguno de los jóvenes nombrados aquí habría vivido con las normas de 2026. Sus circunstancias médicas no están documentadas por completo, y en una enfermedad grave el desenlace nunca está garantizado. Lo que sí puede afirmarse es más limitado y más firme: una categoría de tratamiento que estaba prohibida bajo pena de consecuencias congregacionales cuando ellos enfermaron es hoy, según la propia declaración de la organización, una decisión en la que la congregación «no intervendrá».
Cómo comprobarlo usted mismo
Nada de esta página le pide que nos crea sin más. El número está en el sitio web de la propia organización, y estos son los pasos para leerlo usted mismo, completo y en su contexto.
Abra la Biblioteca en Línea Watchtower en wol.jw.org. Es la biblioteca de la propia organización, no una copia en manos de terceros. El enlace lleva directamente a la página de contenido del ¡Despertad! del 22 de mayo de 1994.
Lea primero la página de contenido. La frase citada al principio de esta página está ahí, en la presentación que el número hace de sí mismo.
Abra los dos artículos principales, «‘Se acordó de su Creador en los días de su juventud’» y «Jóvenes con “poder que es más allá de lo normal”», páginas 3 a 15. Todas las citas de esta página proceden de uno de ellos, y cada referencia de más abajo enlaza con el artículo exacto.
Compárelo con el artículo actual. La declaración de la organización del 18 de septiembre de 2026 está también en su propio sitio, y aparece enlazada desde todas las páginas de esta sección.
Cómo citar o compartir esta página. La dirección estable es https://jwtruth.org/es/blood/youths-who-put-god-first/. Cada afirmación tiene su propio enlace permanente, y la lista completa de fuentes que figura más abajo se imprime con sus citas a la vista.
Fuentes citadas en esta página
Show all 50 sources, in date order
Each opens a full record with links, provenance and a confidence note.
23 de septiembre de 1987 · pp.161 Ill. App. 3d 765 · White J (Freeman J concurring; McNamara PJ dissenting) · Illinois Appellate Court
“The court found probable cause to believe that appellant was medically neglected and appointed the hospital official temporary custodian with power to consent to all medical treatment. Appellant began receiving transfusions pursuant to this ruling.”
18 de noviembre de 1989 · pp.133 Ill. 2d 98 · Ryan J · Illinois Supreme Court
“If the evidence is clear and convincing that the minor is mature enough to appreciate the consequences of her actions, and that the minor is mature enough to exercise the judgment of an adult, then the mature minor doctrine affords her the common law right to consent to or refuse medical treatment.”
18 de noviembre de 1989 · pp.133 Ill. 2d 98 · Ward J · Illinois Supreme Court
“The safeguarding of health and the preservation of life are obviously different conditions from one in which a minor will be held to have a common law right, as the majority puts it, to refuse medical treatment and sometimes in effect take his own life.”
14 de diciembre de 1989 · pp.321(24):1621-1625 · Ho DD, Moudgil T, Alam M · Massachusetts Medical Society
“The mean titers in plasma were 30, 3500, and 3200 tissue-culture-infective doses (TCID) per milliliter for patients with asymptomatic infection, the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), and the AIDS-related complex, respectively.”
22 de mayo de 1994 · p.2 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“In former times thousands of youths died for putting God first. They are still doing it, only today the drama is played out in hospitals and courtrooms, with blood transfusions the issue.”
22 de mayo de 1994 · p.4 · pars. 11-14 (Watchtower Online Library paragraph ids p11-p14) · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“Dr. Jardine asked, “Do you realize that you could die if you don’t take a blood transfusion?” “Yes.” “And you’re willing to do that?” “If that’s what it takes.””
22 de mayo de 1994 · pp.4-5 · par. 16 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“Mom, it’s not a good trade. To disobey God and extend my life for a few years now and then because of my disobedience to God lose out on a resurrection and living forever in his paradise earth—that’s just not smart!”
22 de mayo de 1994 · p.5 · par. 17 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“The biopsy was performed on March 18. It showed that Adrian had a large lymphoma tumor. A subsequent bone marrow biopsy confirmed the fear that he had developed leukemia.”
22 de mayo de 1994 · p.6 · par. 24 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“I won’t agree to blood or let it be used; no way. I know I could die if no blood is used. But that is my decision. No one talked me into that. … The way I feel is that if I’m given any blood that will be like raping me, molesting my body. … Please respect me and my wishes.”
22 de mayo de 1994 · p.6 · pars. 26-27 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“I was alert to the consideration whether his parents [had imposed] upon him their opposition to blood use in the medical treatment of him. … I was satisfied [that] he exercised a mind of his own in expressing his wish for medical treatment absent blood.”
22 de mayo de 1994 · pp.6-8 · pars. 29-37 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“For the following reasons, the applications of the Director of Child Welfare are dismissed; the child is not in need of protection; the use of blood or blood products for the purposes of blood transfusion or injection have not been demonstrated to be essential, and in the particular circumstances of this case, could be harmful.”
22 de mayo de 1994 · p.8 · par. 42 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“So the nurses kindly arranged for him to use one of the stainless steel tanks in the physiotherapy room. He was baptized there September 12; he died the next day, September 13.”
22 de mayo de 1994 · p.8 · par. 45 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“By rejecting blood transfusions that could conceivably have extended his present life, Adrian Yeatts showed himself to be one of the many young people who put God first.”
22 de mayo de 1994 · p.10 · pars. 12-17 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
““But blood transfusions will prolong your life. If you refuse blood, you will die in a few days.” “If I take blood,” Lenae asked, “how long will that prolong my life?” “About three to six months,” they answered.”
22 de mayo de 1994 · p.10 · par. 18 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“This committee, made up of doctors and other health-care professionals, along with a professor of ethics from Fresno State University, made the decision to allow Lenae to make her own decisions with regard to her medical treatment. They considered Lenae a mature minor. No court order was sought.”
22 de mayo de 1994 · p.10 · pars. 19-20 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“After a long, difficult night, at 6:30 a.m., September 22, 1993, Lenae fell asleep in death in the arms of her mother. … There were 482 who attended the memorial service, including doctors, nurses, and teachers, who had been impressed by Lenae’s faith and integrity.”
22 de mayo de 1994 · p.11 · par. 24 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“He further stated that if Crystal tried to resist the transfusions, he would tie her to the bed with wrist and leg restraints to accomplish the procedure. Crystal told the doctors that she would “scream and holler” if they attempted to transfuse her and that as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, she viewed any forcible administration of blood to be as repulsive as rape.”
22 de mayo de 1994 · p.11 · pars. 25-26 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“Despite her attorney’s repeated requests at the hearing, Crystal was denied the opportunity to speak for herself before the court to demonstrate her decision-making ability. … After the visit the trial judge said that Crystal was “obviously very intelligent” and “very articulate” and explained that Crystal “certainly was sound in mind” and “capable of expressing herself fully.””
22 de mayo de 1994 · pp.11-12 · pars. 28-29 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“This guardianship terminated when Crystal was discharged from the hospital. Crystal never needed blood, and none was ever transfused, but it is shocking to see how the court treated Crystal.”
22 de mayo de 1994 · p.12 · par. 32 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“At midnight a nurse came in and said: ‘I have to give you some blood.’ I cried out: ‘I can’t take blood because I’m one of Jehovah’s Witnesses! I hope you know that! I hope you know that!’ ‘Well, yes, I do,’ she said, and immediately pulled out my IV and shoved in the blood. I was crying and becoming hysterical.”
22 de mayo de 1994 · pp.13-14 · pars. 35-44 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
““Do you want to die?” “No, I don’t think anybody wants to die, but if I do die I’m not going to be scared, because I know that I have the hope of everlasting life in a paradise on earth.””
22 de mayo de 1994 · p.14 · pars. 46-51 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“I must find that she has been discriminated against on the basis of her religion and her age pursuant to s. 15(1). In these circumstances, upon being given a blood transfusion, her right to the security of her person pursuant to s. 7 was infringed.”
22 de mayo de 1994 · p.14 · par. 52 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“Lisa did, indeed, fight her disease with dignity and peace of mind. She died peacefully at home, in the loving arms of her mother and father. In so doing she joined the ranks of many other youthful Witnesses of Jehovah who put God first.”
22 de mayo de 1994 · p.15 · par. 59 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“The court found that Ernestine was a mature 17-year-old, able to make informed medical decisions; yet, amazingly, the court granted an order allowing blood transfusions. At the hospital two doctors were standing by, transfusion equipment set up, and as soon as the court’s decision came in, the transfusion was forcibly given to Ernestine in spite of her vigorous protests.”
22 de mayo de 1994 · p.15 · pars. 60-62 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“If the evidence is clear and convincing that the minor is mature enough to appreciate the consequences of her actions, and that the minor is mature enough to exercise the judgment of an adult, then the mature minor doctrine affords her the common law right to consent to or refuse medical treatment.”
22 de mayo de 1994 · p.15 · par. 63 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“Ernestine had no further transfusions, and she did not die from her leukemia. Ernestine stood firm and put God first, like the other young people mentioned previously. Each one received “power beyond what is normal.””
22 de mayo de 1994 · p.13 · pars. 64-73 (box on page 13, ‘Dangers of Blood Transfusion’) · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“The New England Journal of Medicine, issue of December 14, 1989, reported that a single unit of blood may carry enough AIDS virus to cause up to 1.75 million infections!”
22 de mayo de 1994 · p.31 · pars. 1-6 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“BLOOD has become a two-billion-dollar-a-year business. The pursuit of profits from it has resulted in a gigantic tragedy in France. HIV-contaminated blood caused the death of 250 hemophiliacs in AIDS-related illnesses, with hundreds more infected.”
22 de octubre de 1994 · p.30 · par. 13 (letter under the running head ‘Youths Resist Blood Transfusions’); signature at par. 14 · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“I am 12 years old, and I have just read the series “Youths Who Put God First.” (May 22, 1994) I was very impressed by the courage that these young Christian brothers and sisters showed, facing death with such confidence in Jehovah and in the resurrection. Their courage and faith in Jehovah made me weep with joy.”
8 de diciembre de 1994 · p.30 · pars. 2-15 (‘Faithful Youths’) · Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
“I am 18 years old. I was thrilled and shaken when I read the articles yesterday. I could not stop crying when I came to see that these faithful children died. Their faith has made me ask myself whether I could, under such conditions, keep my integrity.”
26 de junio de 2009 · pp.[2009] 2 S.C.R. 181 at 221-222 · paras. 62-63 (and para. 128 per McLachlin CJ) · Abella J · Supreme Court of Canada
“In Re L.D.K. (1985), 48 R.F.L. (2d) 164 (Ont. Prov. Ct. (Fam. Div.)), for example, the patient was a 12-year-old girl suffering from acute myeloid leukaemia. … In Re A.Y. (1993), 111 Nfld. & P.E.I.R. 91 (Nfld. S.C.), the court was faced with an application from the Director of Child Welfare to impose treatment on a 15-year-old Jehovah’s Witness who had cancer.”
18 de septiembre de 2026 · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania
“After further prayerful consideration, the Governing Body has decided that this same principle applies to the four primary components of whole blood —that’s red cells, white cells, plasma, and platelets— that are derived from another person’s blood. Therefore, each Christian must make his own personal decision about the use of these four primary components in all medical and surgical care.”
18 de septiembre de 2026 · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania
“After further prayerful consideration, the Governing Body has decided that this same principle applies to the four primary components of whole blood—red cells, white cells, plasma, and platelets—that are derived from another person’s blood. Therefore, each Christian must make his own personal decision about the use of these four primary components in all medical and surgical care.”
19 de septiembre de 2026 · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania
“Myth: Many Witnesses, including children, die each year as a result of refusing blood transfusions. Fact: This statement is totally unfounded. Surgeons regularly perform such complex procedures as heart operations, orthopedic surgery, and organ transplants without the use of blood transfusions. Patients, including children, who do not receive transfusions usually fare as well as or better than those who do accept transfusions. In any case, no one can say for certain that a patient will die because of refusing blood or will live because of accepting it.”