It's Time to Stop Saying...

by zengalileo 17 Replies latest watchtower medical

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  zengalileo

  It's time to stop saying that jehovah's Witnesses do not accept blood transfusions. It just isn't true any longer. I have posted documentary evidence of JWs world wide accepting whole Platelets , whole plasma, whole white blood cells, their own whole blood after it being stored up to six hours, and evidence of them saying they are "very happy" that the courts ordered the transfusion of their children saving their lives. The only component I have not found JWs to be openly accepting is red blood cells. But I'm sure I will find a report of that being done soon. Now it just doesn't make sense to even bring up that they don't accept red blood cells when they accept every other part.

  Seriously, I think the reason JWs are less likely to accept whole red blood cells is because they are red. And red is the color associated with blood. White blood cells don't seem as evil as they are white.

  So, let's just stop saying it. JWs accept blood. It is a fact.
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  leavingwt

  Please let me know when they disband the HLCs and then offer a public apology to the families of these dead children.

  
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  00DAD

  What a bloody mess ...

  
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  GLTirebiter

  TheofficialWatchtowerwebsitehasmanyarticles that show the blood policy remains in place. It's noteworthy that on their "medical care" page (the first link), blood is the most prominent issue. While they speak disingenously about blood being a "conscience matter", the articles leave no doubt about what conclusion your "trained christian conscience" should make. They have changed the wording to create "plausible deniability"; they have not changed the teaching, and the Hospital Laision Committee is still in business.
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  ohiocowboy

  Just like you said, Perhaps it has to do with the color. Notice that they are now usually willing to take blood components, except for the RED Blood cells. Red is the color of blood-(Once oxygen hits it anyways), so they have this mental block with the color red, and any part of the blood that is red. It allows them subliminally to take other blood components that aren't red...
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  zengalileo

  those who think I was making a comment on the wt actually changing the teaching miss my point completely.
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  leavingwt

  those who think I was making a comment on the wt actually changing the teaching miss my point completely.

  zengalileo: If the WT does not change the teaching, millions of people remain at risk. While these millions are still at risk, what's the purpose in operating under the assumption that JWs accept blood? The rank and file are ready to die, before accepting blood. I was. I would have absolutely died before accepting a transfusion. There are millions more who believe as I did. So, a very, very dangerous situation exists within the JW community, in regards to modern, effective, lifesaving medical treatments involving blood. In the minds of millions, the doctor's advice means less than the elders' advice.

  It warms my heart to know that more and more JWs are prepared to accept blood products. It is premature to think that people's lives are no longer in danger.

  I can, however, see the value in pressing JWs on the matter and suggesting that they DO accept blood, as a means to get them to think. If this is your point, then I understand. If I'm still missing your point, please continue to elaborate.
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  ScenicViewer

  Zen said, The only component I have not found JWs to be openly accepting is red blood cells.

  Hasn't this essentially been changed too, since the year 2000?

  Hemoglobin, which is the same thing as red blood cells, minus the membrane surrounding the cells, is acceptable to JWs now. All the contents inside that membrane -- which is the working part of the red blood cell, the part that delivers oxygen through out the body -- is hemoglobin.

  Why would whole red blood cells be needed when hemoglobin does the same job? (It really is the same thing, since hemoglobin is 97% of red blood cells, but the WTS calls it a fraction, making it ok for Witnesses to take. Before the year 2000 hemoglobin transfusion was banned.)

  The one component of blood that is needed most often in a life-saving situation is red blood cells. Now, by accepting hemoglobin, the WTS has gotten around the issue that caused more deaths among JWs than any other.

  Am I missing something here?
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  jonathan dough

  Not always prohibited by the Watchtower Society in the past, the current prohibition against blood transfusions is more contentious and polarizing than few other issues pertaining to the Jehovah's Witnesses. Seen by most outsiders as a ghoulish mediaeval ritual reminiscent of the occult and finding no valid support in the Bible, the prohibition against receiving blood in the form of a blood transfusion is regarded by the Jehovah's Witnesses as a mandate, one of God's immutable laws.
  
  As the information below illustrates, not only are the Jehovah's Witnesses' beliefs with respect to blood transfusions indefensible in light of scripture and tradition, the Jehovahs Witnesses beliefs' as put in to practice verge on the hypocritical; allowing the transfusion of some blood components but not others has become a deadly farce. Prohibiting blood transfusions based on snippets of scriptural text taken out of context and indifferent to sound, thoughtful biblical scholarship has caused untold misery and pain, and death; the senseless, unwarranted infliction of emotional distress on thousands.
  
  The Jehovah's Witnesses' beliefs regarding the prohibition of blood transfusions becomes all the more heinous when it comes to young children, many of whom have died in furtherance of their parents' misguided beliefs. The blood transfusion prohibition is astounding in light of Jeremiah 32:35 which provides in part, "They built high places to Baal in the Valley of Ben-hinnom, and immolated their sons and daughters to Molech, bringing sin upon Judah; this I never commanded them, nor did it even enter my mind that they should practice such abomination." Here, God instructs man NOT to cause a child to be killed as a form of sacrifice to God. Clearly, sacrificing a child by denying him or her a needed blood transfusion is no different. In no way does such a denial of blood and the child's resulting death please the Almighty. It never entered God's mind.
  
  Any individual contemplating joining the Jehovah's Witnesses religion is forewarned to research this issue carefully, study the history and biblical context of the blood prohibition and understand what it means to not 'eat blood' because the Jehovahs Witnesses beliefs with respect to this gruesome act is not approved by the Almighty, finds no reliable support in scripture and comes close to being a homicide or a suicide. Avoid the anguish for everyone involved and think clearly on this matter. The Jehovah's Witnesses beliefs on blood transfusions are not to be taken lightly.
  
  jwfacts.com and ajwrb.org and marvinshilmer.blogspot.com are good beginnings.

  http://www.144000.110mb.com/directory/jehovahs_witnesses_beliefs_blood_transfusions.html
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  breakfast of champions

  Any true Christian who eats raw oysters is clearly violating the command to abstain from blood. Oyster blood is just clear, so you don't even notice it!