Was the JW Blood Doctrine Fred Franz's baby?

by Think About It 23 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  TD

  I don't know who put that chart together, but it is incorrect.

  I witnessed the drama over blood fractions in the 1960's with my own eyes. An extended family member, the child of Witness parents needed gamma globulin administered as a transfusion and thereafter needed regular injections for years. This was in the mid-1960's

  So-called "Minor" blood fractions (Major plasma proteins) were first allowed in 1958. Over the years, four separate rationales have been offered for the allowance of fractions

  1958: Rationale #1 (The Watchtower September 15, 1958 p. 575)

  Serums, such as the diptheria antitoxin (Post exposure vaccines) are allowed. This would include gamma globulin, (Specifically mentioned) and serum albumin which these injections all contain either as an adjuvant or excipient.

  This was reiterated in the November 15, 1964, the August 22, 1965 and the June 1, 1974 Watchtowers. In the June, 15, 1978 issue on page 31, this position was softened further. RhoGAM injections and Cryoprecipitate (Clotting factors) were also allowed.

  1982: Rationale #2 Blood components are classified as either "Major" or "Minor" on the basis of volume. Minor components are allowed. (The Watchtower, June 22, 1982 pp. 25-27)

  This was a new rationale, but the same divisions remained.

  1990: Rationale #3 Blood components are divided up on the basis of whether or not they cross the placental barrier during gestation. (The Watchtower June 1, 1990 pp. 30,31)

  Another new rationale, but the same divisions remained

  2000: Rationale #4 Blood components are divided into "Primary" and "Secondary" components. Secondary components are allowed (The Watchtower June 15 200 pp. 29-31)

  This rationale allowed additional fractions from components other than plasma. These include hemoglobin based blood substitutes, platelet gels, platelet cytokines, interleukin preparations, etc.
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  booby

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/196009/1/Gene-Smalley-and-the-Watchtowers-Blood-Transfusion-Doctrine
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  helios

  The origins of the this doctrine can be traced to the Battle Creek Sanatorium USA in the years before 1914. Battle Creek was a centre for Adventist medical missionaries to train. and crank medicine. Anyone who wants to know what it was like should watch the film "Getwell Ville", with our great UK star Anthony Hopkins. I hope I have spelt it correctly!!! The place was run by 'Dr'. Kellogg who later made his name in cornflakes. It was a place that seems to have been obscessed with the colon and colonic regularity. 'Dr' Kellogg, (according to my informant, who alas has been dead for about 40 years,) condemned blood transfusion in a student lecture. Quoting the Scriptures as do JWs today. My informant eventually left the Adventists and joined the ranks of the Bible Students. Returning to the UK. This was prior to 1916 as he personally met Russell in the UK. What was heard in that seminal lecture remained in the mind of this individual and eventually the idea was introduced to Knorr in the early 1940s, at a time when Rutherford, dying of cancer, held a convention in Leicester UK. Where that idiotic book " Children" was released. The individual concerned had an evening entertaining the young Knorr in his home during the convention. All this I heard from the individual himself. Knorr strongly questioned the idea but maybe it triggered something. Maybe more that eschatology has been borrowed from the adventists. No one in my imediate circle ever questioned to truth of what I have just written. I was told "It was Jehovah's due time to reveal this truth." I guess this a shock but I was there and hear it from the man himself.
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  Nathan Natas

  I want to provide a link to an excellent thread by Dogpatch about how Gene Smalley was involved in the development of the no-blood doctrine.

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/196009/1/Gene-Smalley-and-the-Watchtowers-Blood-Transfusion-Doctrine

  I still contend that there are few original thinkers in WT HQ, and that Smalley was probably borrowing ideas from elsewhere without attribution.