EPO injections have been on the acceptable list for quite some time - the preparation contains a small amount of albumin.
A friend of mine tells me a letter was read in his congregation last week after the service meeting stating that these injections don't contain any blood fractions and are no longer a conscience matter.
Anyone know more details?
Here is the last quote I could find discussing whether a JW can accept EPO back in 1994
***w9410/1p.31Questions From Readers***Would it be proper to accept a vaccination or some other medical injection containing albumin derived from human blood?Frankly, each Christian must personally decide on this.
God's servants rightly want to obey the directive found at Acts 15:28, 29, to abstain from blood. Accordingly, Christians will not eat unbled meat or products such as blood sausage. But God's law also applies in the medical area. Jehovah's Witnesses carry a document stating that they refuse 'blood transfusions, whole blood, red cells, white cells, platelets, or blood plasma.' What, though, about serum injections containing a tiny amount of a blood protein?
Witnesses have long realized that this is a matter for private decision in accord with each one's Bible-trained conscience. This was pointed out in "Questions From Readers" of TheWatchtower of June 1, 1990, which discussed serum injections that a physician may recommend if one is exposed to certain diseases. The active components of such injections are not blood plasma per se but antibodies from the blood plasma of those who have developed resistance. Some Christians who feel that they can in good conscience accept such injections have noted that antibodies from the blood of a pregnant woman cross into the blood of the baby in her womb. "Questions From Readers" mentioned this, as well as the fact that some albumin passes from a pregnant woman to her baby.
Many find this noteworthy, since some vaccines that are not prepared from blood may contain a relatively small amount of plasma albumin that was used or added to stabilize the ingredients in the preparation. Currently a small amount of albumin is also used in injections of the synthetic hormone EPO (erythropoietin). Some Witnesses have accepted injections of EPO because it can hasten red blood cell production and so may relieve a physician of a feeling that a blood transfusion might be needed.Other medical preparations may come into use in the future that involve a comparatively small amount of albumin, since pharmaceutical companies develop new products or change the formulas of existing ones. Christians may thus want to consider whether albumin is part of a vaccination or other injection that a doctor recommends. If they have doubts or have reason to believe that albumin is a component, they can inquire of their physician.
As noted, many Witnesses have not objected to accepting an injection that contains a small quantity of albumin. Still, anyone wanting to study the matter more thoroughly before making a personal decision should review the information presented in "Questions From Readers" of TheWatchtower of June 1, 1990.
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Letter to all Congregations - Synthetic Hormone EPO (Erythropoietin) now OK and NO longer a conscience matter
by LUKEWARM 16 Replies latest watchtower medical
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LUKEWARM
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teel
Huh? This sounds weird... I never heard of anything being said as "it's ok now, it's not conscience matter". I tought everything was either a law, or a conscience matter. I don't see even JWs to technically force you to take EPO if you still view it as objectionable.
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fokyc
EPO was certainly and most definitely acceptable in the UK in 1998
It was actually donated to us in hospital by a Pharmacist who was on the HLC
(HLC = Hospital Liaison Committee)
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wannabefree
recombinant erythropoietin - synthetic, genetically engineered, therefore not a fraction of blood, therefore not a conscience matter
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wobble
The problem with this is that ignorant Dubs believe that E P O is some sort of magic drug that will so boost their production of red blood cells that even if they bleed like a stuck pig they will not need a transfusion.
They will demand the inappropriate use of this expensive drug, which takes several days to even start to boost production of cells. This happened in my mothers case, my uber-Dub nephew is convinced it saved her life, it didn't.
It is of no use in an emergency situation where blood loss of life threatening proportions has occurred.
What is needed is for the WT to have the guts to change their ridiculous blood doctrine, at the minimum to one where taking in whole blood is a conscience matter.
The hard -hearted, cold, callous GB and Legal dept. will not do this in case some law suits for the previous nonsense doctrine come their way, and cost them some of the dollars donated by the families of ones who died because of their non-scriptural blood doctrine.
If only the public at large knew this.
Wobble
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sir82
That's weird - I have not heard any such letter.
Then again, our congregation tends to run late on reading letters & making announcements.
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Mad Sweeney
Letters are now all sent electronically. If your congregation secretary is your typical computer-phobic clown, he probably only checks it once every couple weeks.
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Mary
Other medical preparations may come into use in the future that involve a comparatively small amount of albumin, since pharmaceutical companies develop new products or change the formulas of existing ones. Christians may thus want to consider whether albumin is part of a vaccination or other injection that a doctor recommends. If they have doubts or have reason to believe that albumin is a component, they can inquire of their physician.
To show how ridiculous their 'reasoning' on this is, the fact of the matter is that there are about 50 grams of albumin in one liter of blood. To get 600 grams of albumin (which they use for severe bleeding and burn victims) it would require 12 liters of blood. Hardly a small amount. In true Watchtower mentality though, the Governing Body apparently sees no problem with forbidding plasma or packed red cells to ‘Brother A' who might either have Leukemia or is bleeding internally, while at the same time, allowing ‘Brother B' to accept albumin if he was suffering from third degree burns on 50% of his body, even though accepting the albumin would initially involve a much larger volume of blood.
Reminds me of the double standard the bastards had in the 1960s, when they let thousands of brothers and sisters in Malawi be beated, raped and murdered over a frigging "party card", while at the same time, allowing the brothers in Mexico to bribe the authorities.
Wobble said: What is needed is for the WT to have the guts to change their ridiculous blood doctrine, at the minimum to one where taking in whole blood is a conscience matter.
Actually, they rarely, if ever, transfuse "whole blood". I didn't know this until last year when my b-i-l got sick. It is extremely dangerous to transfuse platelets and is done only in emergency situations. White cells are equally dangerous to transfuse even with a match because the host's own immune system will view the transfused white cells as being "foreign" and will almost certainly attack it. The vast majority of patients who need blood transfusions, need packed red cells.
My own opinion is that the next step the WT will take is for them to still ban "whole blood" but allow "packed red cells" to fall under the category of "fractions" and make it a "conscience matter.
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JWoods
My own opinion is that the next step the WT will take is for them to still ban "whole blood" but allow "packed red cells" to fall under the category of "fractions" and make it a "conscience matter.
That sounds like a reasonable step, given their past switches on blood.
Probably such an idea would be driven more by perceived JW legal issues than by any "doctrinal interpretation."
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AudeSapere
Still not allowed to donate, though. Right??