Yes, so if fractions are ok, then the illustration of alcohol could be likened to having light strength beer.....it's only a fraction of the alcohol after all....
Need Help with Blood Transfusion Illustration
by Dissonant15 78 Replies latest watchtower medical
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Sabin
I think it has to do with what the motive of the individual is personally. For instance if you read Gen 19:30-38, it talks of Lots daughters getting him drunk & basically raping him. But what was the motive behind it? V 31,32. "Preserve offspring from our father". Their intentions were for good, for their fathers name to be carried forward. If you compare that with Lots wife , all she did was look back & she died, how could this have been a worse sin? because her heart was bad, She was not worried for the wellbeing of her daughters safety only for her own loss she was selfish. How much more so should this principle stand now that we have the sacrifice of Jesus, if we have no mercy on behalf of others then what does that sacrifice really mean, would we not be making it worthless. If a person chooses to have a blood transfusion to preserve a life, their own or that of a dearly loved one is their motive one of selfishness or of love. God is the judge of us all, it is the reasoning of our heart that he reads not our doing something out of fear of the GB. They always have an illustration that covers their asses but somehow they always miss the point. This is of cause my own opinion on the matter, while not the illustration you were looking for i hopes it helps. -
Splash
If a doctor told you to abstain from eating meat, would it be OK to have a liver transplant? Of course it would.
This is also why strict vegetarians would accept an organ transplant, they recognise that it is not eating meat.
The WT example breaks down when you accept that a blood transfusion does not 'nourish' you as they claim, like eating blood does. Otherwise a starving man could be kept alive with transfusions, which we know cannot happen.
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besty
linking to cofty's post as the link given earlier is broken somehow
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/204070001/watchtower-right-about-blood?size=10&page=1
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Sabin
Splash that is brilliant, you cleaver clogs you.
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Lemonp
Ask if Organ Transplants are Cannibalism.
This was the teaching until the 80's, and after then it was allowed. Isn't putting another person's flesh inside yourself eating it?
If it isn't, why is putting blood inside yourself eating it then??
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OneEyedJoe
Fun fact: sometimes the medical treatment in extreme cases for alcohol withdrawal (you know, for someone that the doctor might've instructed to "abstain from alcohol") is to administer alcohol intravenously. So their illustration immediately falls apart. If your doctor tells you to abstain from alcohol, there are still situations where that same doctor might inject alcohol into your veins. If anything, that illustration proves the point that if something that you would normally abstain from becomes medically necessary then an exception should be made. -
Pistoff
I would say this:
1. Who is the doctor in the illustration? God or the doctor?
2. If injecting it once would save my life, then yes I would, and then go back to avoiding it.
The illustration seems reasonable at first, because it makes it seem like the two practices are equivalent, and they are not.
Is the doctor's directive one based on general health recommendations or is it due to deadly allergies?
I would answer this illustration with one of your own.
The current policy forbids the use of whole blood, or what they call it's four main parts, plasma, red cells, white cells and platelets.
But you are allowed to take fractions derived from the four parts, no limit on the number or the amount, just that they describe them as small.
It is theoretically possible to use all of the fractions, no 'rule' against it.
You could theoretically 're-assemble' the blood!
So, I would review this policy and ask them:
Is this the same as saying I can't eat beef stew or the main groups (meat, water vegetables), but I can consumer the broth, cut up beef chunks, carrot pieces and slices of onions?
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rebel8
There are many doctrinal arguments about the bible not prohibiting blood.
Personally, I see a little merit in them, but the real issue is that there is nothing morally wrong with a lifesaving medical procedure that only helps people and harms nobody.
The bible is not a source of good morals, and as long as people try to point to it as a source of right and wrong, you have a severely limited ability to reason with them.
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rebel8
All addicts and alcoholics, by the way, don't 100% abstain from mind-altering addictive substances.
They don't all abstain from every food containing vanilla extract.
They use drugs when needed for surgery, childbirth, cancer pain, etc.
They take prescribed psychoactive substances when needed to treat mental illness.
These are not considered relapses.