I remember going to a hospital in Chi-town where there was a seminar on non-blood surgery and the benefits of it. I enjoyed it at the time, but two things always struck me: It is a matter of one's own consious whether or not you would be willing to recycle your own blood by this machine cleaning it and flowing right back into your own body, all in one fell swoop. It would benefit those most who had a blood disease, I would imagine.
The second thing was that it could be ok to accept blood fractions, cuz well, we have come so far in science, etc. that they can derrive fractions from whole blood, and so a fraction would not necessarily be "taking in blood".
When it came time for the new medical directive aka "blood card" to be filled out and witnessed, with these"new understandings" I commented to my friends, who were eager to be a witness (Can I get a witness, brothers & sisters?), I stated that in no uncertain terms would I accept blood of any kind. They looked like a dear in headlights and said, but now, if it is ok with your consious, you CAN accept fractions. Are you sure you don't want that? I reasoned (or tried to), "if a fraction or anything else comes from primary, whole or whatever kind of blood, THEN IT IS STILL ACCEPTING BLOOD!" Well, not really, cuz...blah blah blah (I do love my friends, but they made as much sense to me as I probably did to them-NONE.)
"Well, what about the machine?" they asked, dismayed. ME: "So, we CANNOT donate or even SAVE OUR OWN blood, yet we can have a machine that continues to circulate and cleanse our blood outside our body, and then brings it back in again?" Yes! ME: "Huh? The blood is still TECHNICALLY outside your body." Them: "Well, not really, because the "machine" is just a facilitator." ME: "HUH? It is no difference in using that "advancement in technology" to store your own blood for later use, or using another "advancement in technology" called a blood transfusion." The "machine" isn't part of our natural bodies, so WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE? Ugg. They meant well. I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed. I readily admit it, but all that techy, mumbo jumbo crap just seemed like even WTBTS powers that be, were looking for loopholes around their own blood issues.
I stuck to my guns, and then they looked at me all cock-eyed when the DPA came up and I wasn't on the bandwagon about some other new advancement in science vs. what a witness can or cannot accept, according to their own consious. WHATEVER! Maybe this explains why I am no longer in the "Truth" and they are. I still have my medical directive. It took a few years before I yanked it out of my wallet (when I carry one). It is now sitting in my car's ashtray. Every now and then I take a gander, if only to see my friends' signature. We had some GREAT times. It's just a pity all the way around.