Is it okay for a JW to handle blood in a medical place of work?

by trailerfitter 19 Replies latest watchtower medical

  • trailerfitter
    trailerfitter

    Hi everyone, i am curious to the stance and opinions of those who are in the know. My JW partner (we are seperated) applied for and got a job in a hospital working as a phlebotomist,.. Odd I thought at first. As I am aware they collect blood samples and deliver blood to wards for a sister (UK senior nurse term) for administration to patients. She will be handling blood and parts of blood... (derivitives of blood). Is this right and allowed by the WT$? I perhaps is missing something here but it's a bit like an anti abortionist working in an abortion clinic?...

    Dunno what the great big sky daddy Jehovvabobble would think to all this... Your thoughts and truths please....

  • wasblind
    wasblind

    marked

  • blondie
    blondie

    The WTS okayed their members to HAVE A BLOOD TEST. Thus being on the other end and taking blood for a test as employment would be allowed by the WTS. Does their reasoning jive with blood doctrine then and now (though rarely mentioned) about the necessity of disposing of blood right away, no. The WTS allows the use of hemoglobin-based products, which several are made from expired stored human blood.

    *** w78 6/15 p. 30 Questions From Readers ***

    Would it be wrong to submit to a blood test?

    Based on their knowledge of the Scriptures, most of Jehovah’s Witnesses, if not all, do not object to such tests. The small quantity of blood removed from the body is not eaten or injected into someone else. It is merely examined or tested before being disposed of.—Deut. 15:23.

  • trailerfitter
    trailerfitter

    Okay thanks Blondie,... You always come up with just the right WT reference. So continuing from this. If she was to supply blood by the means of fitting a needle and drip to a patient so the patient would be recieving blood ,....would this be in violation of J. hoovers laws??

  • blondie
    blondie

    It wasn't allowed years ago, I remember a sister that was an RN when she became a jw and she worked in surgery and administered transfusions. She had to transfer into another area. Years ago jw doctors used to be allowed to administer, but I don't think they can any more. I have an errand to run. Perhaps others can post more on that question. If not, I'll see if I find anything else.

    Here's more comprehensive info re your first question:

    *** w75 4/1 pp. 215-216 Are You Guided by a Sensitive Christian Conscience? ***

    CONSCIENCE AND EMPLOYMENT

    7 Employment is an area that brings up many problems calling for the exercise of Christian conscience. Some forms of employment, such as making idols, working in a gambling establishment or being employed by a false religious organization, are clearly contrary to the Scriptures. So Christians shun these. (1 John 5:21; Col. 3:5; Rev. 18:2, 4, 5) Not all employment matters, though, are that clear-cut. Certain employment may be in a “gray area,” so to speak. And sometimes, while one’s basic work is unobjectionable, one may be asked occasionally to do something questionable. So conscience can be involved.

    8 For example, there are employment problems involving blood. The Bible states plainly that God’s servants should not feed on blood. (Gen. 9:3, 4; Acts 15:19, 20) Hence, Jehovah’s Christian witnesses do not eat food containing blood, such as blood sausage, or accept blood transfusions. But what if, on your job you were asked to handle blood or blood products occasionally? Would your conscience permit that? A Witness in Colorado worked in a hospital as the chief medical technician running tests of various types on body tissue and fluid. Among the many things he was expected to test were blood samples. Sometimes it was simply to check a patient’s blood for the level of sugar or cholesterol. But at other times it was to cross match for transfusion purposes. Could he do that?

    9 This Christian gave careful thought to the matter. It could be seen that it would not be right for a Christian to work exclusively for a blood bank, where everything was devoted to an end that was in violation of God’s law. But that was not his situation; he ran tests of many kinds. Also, if one were a doctor responsible for the decision, one could not order a blood transfusion for a patient, any more than a Christian store owner could order and stock idols or cigarettes. However, this technician realized that in connection with blood he was merely running a test, even as a nurse might have taken the sample, a messenger might have delivered it to the laboratory and someone else might administer a transfusion or other medication on a doctor’s orders. He reflected on the principle at Deuteronomy 14:21. According to that text a Jew finding a carcass of an animal that died of itself could clear it away by selling it to a foreigner who was not under the Law’s restrictions about animal flesh not drained of its blood. So the technician’s conscience at that time allowed him to run blood tests, including those of blood for transfusions to patients who did not care about God’s law on blood.

    10 Is that how your conscience would have reacted? If not, for the sake of discussion, ask yourself whether your conscience would permit you as an employee to bring the blood sample to the laboratory for testing. Or, taking yet another step farther away from the actual transfusion, could you as a truck driver deliver the testing equipment to the hospital? Or would your conscience let you make glass from which such equipment might be produced? It is clear that not all these things reasonably can be viewed as direct contributions to violating God’s law on blood. But where does one “draw the line”? Here is where conscience comes into play. While the Christian must avoid things that are unmistakably in conflict with God’s law, he is called upon to use his conscience in settling many matters. Would your conscience serve you well in such situations? Is it sensitive?

    11 In this particular case, after many years of running tests, the technician began to be troubled by his conscience. It was not as if someone else should or could tell him that he was doing wrong. Nor was he looking for someone else to make his decisions for him. But he began to think: “Is it consistent to talk of neighbor love, and yet contribute, in part, to my neighbor’s breaking of God’s law?” (Matt. 22:39; Acts 21:25) Appreciating his Christian duty to support his family, he discussed the matter with his wife. (1 Tim. 5:8) Together they agreed that, if his conscience was troubled, it would be better to make a change. He left his $15,000-a-year job and began doing cleaning work, though he started off earning just $3,600 a year.

    12 Let us not miss the point of this example. It is not related here to suggest that a Christian cannot be a medical technician; there are Christians who continue to work as medical technicians, nurses, truck drivers, and so forth. This example is given to illustrate that conscience can come into play on matters of employment. In your case the type of job and what you are asked to do may be quite different. But all Christians should give thought to whether they are living as closely as possible in accord with God’s ways and principles. If your conscience trained by God’s Word is pained because of what is asked of you, will you ignore it? Just how important is it to you to have a clear conscience before God and men?—1 Tim. 1:5, 19.

  • trailerfitter
    trailerfitter

    That was painful to read....it is left up to thier own concious to decide and no doubt there are other articles that will make them feel more troubled about what they are doing against J.Hoovers will. not very clear from the Watchtower ?? Thanks for the time and trouble of posting this information. Incident she worked on a ward whilst a baptised JW which regularly performed abortions. Amazing how one can be so adamant that J.Hoover actually disaproves of blood... I feel there is a get out clause for the WTBT$ in that writing.

  • ShirleyW
    ShirleyW

    Just the title alone on this post shows what a man made cult/religion the Dubs are! What other religion on earth has such control on their emptyheaded followers that one in the medical profession would even have to ask that?

    Blondie your comment above says it all, first they could administer blood then they couldn't, then they can, then they can't. . . absolutely amazing !!

  • trailerfitter
    trailerfitter

    I just had an after-thought about the second to last paragraph. The guy left a not very well paid job to work for 3/4s less because of his christian morals. Sounds obserd and financially sucidal if he was supporting a famiy!!

    I guess in the same booklet or somewhere soon after there must be an article about having the right christian conciousness to serve Jehovah only. He would have had, like the JWs around here, a window cleaning job which is a low wage with less hours so they have more time to spread the good news... yeah clever.

  • TimeBandit
    TimeBandit

    Wy wife has been an RN since 1970. She was baptised in 1983. She routinely has administered blood all the while. There is a wt article about it in which it states that if it is the descision of the doctor, then the JW nurse can do so. My wife has never gotten any flac from the elders over it.

    Chris-

  • blondie
    blondie

    It is variable, the factors can be,

    1) Do other jws know the person is administering a blood transfusion, and are "stumbled" even if a non-jw doctor has ordered it.

    2) How the individual body of elders decides to handle it...they can divert overly sensitive jws in the congregation or wimp out and give in to the "stumbled" jws

    The sister who was an RN herself had a "sensitive" conscience and decided that she had to switch jobs.

    *** w64 11/15 pp. 682-683 Employment and Your Conscience ***Therefore, whether a Christian will submit to inoculation with a serum, or whether doctors or nurses who are Christians will administer such, is for personal decision. Christians in the medical profession are individually responsible for employment decisions. They must bear the consequences of decisions made, in keeping with the principle at Galatians 6:5. Some doctors who are Jehovah’s witnesses have administered blood transfusions to persons of the world upon request. However, they do not do so in the case of one of Jehovah’s dedicated witnesses. In harmony with Deuteronomy 14:21, the administering of blood upon request to worldly persons is left to the Christian doctor’s own conscience. This is similar to the situation facing a Christian butcher or grocer who must decide whether he can conscientiously sell blood sausage to a worldly person.

Share this

Google+
Pinterest
Reddit