@ Marvin & others:
First off, how do I subscribe to a thread?
Can you give me some background into the whole hemodilution thing? Do JW's still have to have a circulatory system hooked up when accepting hemodilution?
Also what is "sever hemodilution" mentioned in the Awake '72 4/8 pp. 29-30? I have googled that term and cannot find anything?
I am trying to decipher whether the GB changed the stance on hemodilution simply because their opinion changed. Or, was it because the procedure changed over time?
*** w59 10/15 p. 640 Questions From Readers ***
If, however, hemorrhaging should occur at the time of an operation and by some means the blood is immediately channeled back into the body, this would be allowable. The use of some device whereby the blood is diverted and a certain area or organ is temporarily bypassed during surgery would be Biblically permissible, for the blood would be flowing from one’s body through the apparatus and right back into the body again. On the other hand, if the blood were stored, even for a brief period of time, this would be a violation of the Scriptures.
The use of another person’s blood to “prime” any device employed in surgery is objectionable. In this case the blood would circulate through the system of the patient, becoming mixed with his own. Again, if one’s own blood would have to be withdrawn at intervals and stored until a sufficient amount had accumulated to set a machine in operation, this too would fall under Scriptural prohibition. The ones involved in the matter are in the best position to ascertain just how the blood would be handled and must bear responsibility before Jehovah for seeing that it is not handled unscripturally.
***g724/8pp.29-30WatchingtheWorld***
♦ Men of science are constantly developing new methods for performing surgical operations. TheJournaloftheAmericanMedicalAssociation, dated November 15, 1971, described a procedure for open-heart surgery that employs “sever hemodilution.” Early in the operation a large quantity of blood is drawn off into a plastic blood bag. Though the bag is left connected to the patient by a tube, the removed and stored blood is no longer circulating in the patient’s system. It is replaced with a plasma volume expander, which dilutes the blood remaining in the veins and which gradually dissipates during the operative procedure. Near the conclusion of the operation the blood storage bag is elevated, and the stored blood is reinfused into the patient. The New York Times of November 9, 1971, reported on a somewhat similar procedure whereby some days before one undergoes surgery as much as four pints of blood are removed and stored. During the operation the person’s own stored blood is transfused back into him, thus avoiding the danger of disease and mismatched blood. These techniques are noteworthy to Christians, since they run counter to God’s Word. The Bible shows that blood is not to be taken out of a body, stored and then later reused.
***w893/1p.31QuestionsFromReaders***
What about induced hemodilution? Some surgeons believe that it is advantageous for a patient’s blood to be diluted during surgery. Thus, at the start of an operation, they direct some blood to storage bags outside a patient’s body and replace such with nonblood fluids; later, the blood is allowed to flow from the bags back to the patient. Since Christians do not let their blood be stored, some physicians have adapted this procedure, arranging the equipment in a circuit that is constantly linked to the patient’s circulatory system. Some Christians have accepted this, others have refused. Again, each individual must decide whether he would consider the blood diverted in such a hemodilution circuit to be similar to that flowing through a heart/lung machine, or he would think of it as blood that left him and therefore should be disposed of.
