We've all been given the new advanced health "care" Directive at our book groups. Talk about feeling pressured into a situation. We have to take forms home, read them, tick what medical care info our consciense will allow if we are in a life or death situation. Then take the form back and have our signiture witnessed by two others.
On the meeting part about the A.M.C.D, we was advised to make multipul copies of the completed form. The instruction was to keep the original in a safe place where it could be found easily. One copy should be given to the doctor for your file, the others to the ones who witnessed your signiture, even give one to the Cong secetary and keep one in the glove compartment in your car.
Take a look at the older light on Blood in this WT of 1961.
*** w61 9/15 558-9 Respect for the Sanctity of Blood ***
BLOOD TRANSFUSION
15 Over the centuries man’s misuses of blood have taken on many forms. Ancient Egyptian princes used human blood for rejuvenation; others drank the blood of their enemies. But not until after William Harvey’s research into the circulation of the blood, in the seventeenth century, was there any extensive effort made to transfuse blood into the circulatory system of another creature. After having suffered severe setbacks due to fatalities, blood transfusion finally came to be viewed with more favor at the beginning of this twentieth century, when research made it possible to identify certain blood types. The two world wars and the Korean war gave doctors ample opportunity to experiment with the therapeutic use of blood, and now the process has been developed to the point that doctors use not only whole blood and blood plasma, which is the nearly colorless liquid in which the blood cells are carried, but also red cells apart from the plasma, and the various plasma proteins as they feel the need.16 Is God’s law violated by such medical use of blood? Is it wrong to sustain life by infusions of blood or plasma or red cells or the various blood fractions? Yes! The law that God gave to Noah and which applies to all his descendants makes it wrong for anyone to eat blood, that is, to use the blood of another creature to nourish or sustain one’s life. Even as Tertullian in his Apology showed how the early Christians reasoned on the matter, so today it is recognized that if this prohibition applies to animal blood, it applies with even more force to human blood. It includes “any blood at all.”—Lev. 3:17.
17 Arguments to the effect that the prohibition on the use of blood issued by the early Christian governing body did not deal with human blood, but only with animal blood, show ignorance of the facts of history. In ancient Rome, which dominated the Mediterranean world in the first century, spectators at the gladiatorial contests would rush into the arena after the fight and suck the blood streaming from the neck of the vanquished gladiator. Some from among the Scythians reportedly ate their dead relatives. Treaties were made among some peoples by mutually drinking a portion of each other’s blood; and human blood caught in the hand and eaten was used to seal initiation into the rites of the pagan goddess Bellona. So when the apostles, under direction of the holy spirit, said that Christians were to keep themselves from blood, they did have in mind human blood too.
18 It is of no consequence that the blood is taken into the body through the veins instead of the mouth. Nor does the claim by some that it is not the same as intravenous feeding carry weight. The fact is that it nourishes or sustains the life of the body. In harmony with this is a statement in the book Hemorrhage and Transfusion, by George W. Crile, A.M., M.D., who quotes a letter from Denys, French physician and early researcher in the field of transfusions. It says: “In performing transfusion it is nothing else than nourishing by a shorter road than ordinary—that is to say, placing in the veins blood all made in place of taking food which only turns to blood after several changes.”
19 In view of the emphasis put on the use of blood in the medical world, new treatments involving its use are constantly being recommended.But regardless of whether it is whole blood or a blood fraction, whether it is blood taken from one’s own body or that taken from someone else, whether it is administered as a transfusion or as an injection, the divine law applies. God has not given man blood to use as he might use other substances; he requires respect for the sanctity of blood.
(be interesting in the light of WT habit of miss quoting, to find out exactly what George W. Crile, A.M., M.D., who quotes a letter from Denys, French physician actually wrote!)
Did you read Maximus's post on Blood and WT quoting, thanks Maximus.
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/forum/thread.asp?id=6288&site=3
The Wt of Sept 1961 goes on in para 20,
20 What a fine example in respect for this law was set by God-fearing King David! Before the enemies of God’s people had been driven from the land, the Philistines had a garrison in Bethlehem near Jerusalem, and on one occasion “David showed his craving and said: ‘O that I might have a drink of the water from the cistern of Bethlehem, which is at the gate!’” Yes, he wished that the Philistines were gone and that he could be free to go to that cistern and be refreshed by its water. But on hearing his expression, “three [valiant men] forced their way into the camp of the Philistines and drew water from the cistern of Bethlehem, which is at the gate, and came carrying and bringing it to David.” What they brought was nothing more than water, but they did it at the risk of their lives, and David knew it. “And David did not consent to drink it, but poured it out to Jehovah. And he went on to say: ‘It is unthinkable on my part, as regards my God, to do this! Is it the blood of these men that I should drink at the risk of their souls? For it was at the risk of their souls that they brought it.’ And he did not consent to drink it.” (1 Chron. 11:16-19; 2 Sam. 23:15-17) David respected the law of God. Not only did he abstain from animal blood; he avoided the far more gross wrong of consuming human blood. Yes, he avoided doing anything that even resembled violation of that law. He was a man after God’s own heart. It is a like course of obedience from the heart that moves mature Christians today to abstain from any practice at all that involves misuse of blood. Out of love for God they show respect for the sanctity of blood.WHAT!
During a wartime crisis, some Israelite soldiers killed animals and fell to eating along with the blood. (1 Samuel 14:31-35) Did they have to die for their error?.....you would thinks so, No they were just told off!
I wonder if the Elders are keeping tabs on anybody who does not complete or even ask for a form!?
http://www.ajwrb.org/basics/crumbles.shtml
qwerty
"Facts are the enemy of truth."
- Don Quixote - "Man of La Mancha"
P.S I have scanned the copies of the Medical directive into my comp, just got to get the file size down, so I can put them on the web. I might try zipping each page, unless anyone as got a tip?