Half way through med school there came a 19 yo young man to the congo in the city, from one of the provinces in my country. He had chronic myeloid leukemia, in the initial stages, it had been randomly found through his (required by law) prenuptial blood work. The guy was in otherwise good health, and if he underwent bone marrow transplant he had all the odds in his favor for living a normal life. The government in his province already had a grant in place for his transplant and ongoing treatment. The donor had been found. The family was now in the capital city for final arrangements. One problem though, he was allowed to get a bone marrow transplant, but for the treatment to be successful in the first place, all his leukemic blood had to be replaced as well, and this was not allowed. Without this, he had 8 years to live at most. One of the Branch Committee members told him, not to worry; "brother, in 8 years we will have been in paradise for long already". That was 1999. And no, he didn't even get to live as long as 8 years, I later learned.
I remember feeling so angry at the time, when I heard what this bethel heavy had told him. And I remember angrily challenging my father (who is otherwise an excellent physician BTW) about HOW IN THE WORLD a bone marrow [the precursor for blood, the essence of blood in my eyes then] was allowed and a blood "transplant" was not allowed. My dad told me that if getting a bone marrow transplant was against my concience, then it could always be my choice not to accept one besides not accepting plain blood.