Blood Substitute Vexes Jehovah's Witnesses

blondie

http://www.detnews.com/2004/health/0412/22/C01-40027.htm

Wednesday, December 22, 2004

Blood substitute vexes Jehovah's Witnesses

PolyHeme will be tested on injured patients, many without consent.

By Doug Guthrie

Blood forbidden

Jehovah's Witnesses believe the Bible bans the transfusion of blood. They cite: Acts 15:28 -- For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things; Acts 15:29 -- That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.

Source: King James Version of the Bible

Comment on this story

Testing a blood substitute in Metro Detroit next year could lead to a revolution in medical care, but for the area's estimated 8,000 Jehovah's Witnesses, it has produced a religious gray area.

PolyHeme will be given to severely injured patients, many without consent because they will be unconscious. That could include Jehovah's Witnesses, who refuse blood transfusions for religious reasons.

"It could be seen by some as a kind of spiritual rape," said Michael Neal, a lawyer from Troy and a Jehovah's Witness.

He serves on a six-member board of elders helping doctors and patients in conflicts over treatments involving blood.

A violation by members can result in de-fellowship or shunning by the church. But, the denomination's headquarters in New York has left open the question of whether the blood substitute will be allowed.

Local Jehovah's Witnesses hope hospital officials will meet with them to discuss ways to let people opt out. Most witnesses already carry identification indicating their desire to abstain from blood transfusions.

However, many may embrace the new blood substitute, said Karen Scalici, a Jehovah's Witness and the nurse coordinator of bloodless surgery at St. John's Riverview Hospital in Detroit.

"Personally, I think it's exciting," Scalici said. "Many Jehovah's Witnesses are going to be very interested in this and some will have a problem with it."

Jehovah's Witnesses take blood-enhancing drugs before surgical procedures and use a machine in the operating room to collect and recirculate their own blood.

Doug Menner, associate director of hospital information services for Jehovah's Witnesses nationwide in Brooklyn, N.Y., said the church monitors evolving medical science and attempts to determine how it relates to Biblical guidance.

With PolyHeme, the church has determined it isn't whole blood, which poses a reconsideration.

Room 215

What is this Polyheme? A synthetic? If it is a bonafide substitute for blood, why would any JW object to its use?

blondie

Polyheme is made out of outdated stored human blood.

http://www.northfieldlabs.com/polyheme.html

Product Description

PolyHeme® is a unique human hemoglobin-based oxygen-carrying blood substitute in development for the treatment of urgent, large volume blood loss in trauma and surgical settings, with a particular focus on settings where blood is not immediately available.

PolyHeme® is a solution of chemically modified human hemoglobin which simultaneously restores lost blood volume and hemoglobin levels and can be rapidly and massively infused.

PolyHeme® has been rapidly and safely infused in clinical trials in sufficiently massive quantities to be useful in the treatment of large volume blood loss.

PolyHeme?s unique characteristics make it the ideal resuscitative fluid:

Simultaneously restores lost blood volume and hemoglobin levels
Is universally compatible
Is immediately available
Supports life without red blood cells
Reduces risk of viral disease
Does not cause transfusion reactions
Allows rapid, massive infusion
Has extended shelf life of over 12 months
Has been well tolerated in clinical trials to date
Is manufactured from human blood

M.J.

They're acting skeptical on the outside but on the inside the higher ups are probably overjoyed, cause they're so counting on this kind of technology to save their butts.

With PolyHeme, the church has determined it isn't whole blood, which poses a reconsideration.

It's manufactured from real human blood and consists of real human hemoglobin, which makes up 97% of a red blood cell. In fact, red cells exist in order to transport hemogobin. Hemoglobin makes up 15% of blood. Yet the WTS says you must reject white blood cells (1% of blood) and platelets (0.17% of blood).

Here's the real point. If you wanted to dissect the purest and most essential representation of "life" from someone's blood, it would be the hemoglobin. Medically, it's the portion that is tied directly to a person's "breath". It transports oxygen from the lungs to all parts of the body, notably the brain, which sustains one's life.

TheListener

Hopefully when they pass around our new dpa cards there will be some sort of check mark for accepting non-whole blood substitutes. That is, if you intend to fill their version of the dpa out.

So why does the society say white blood cells are not permissable if they pass from mother to infant in the colostrum? I have never understood this. I have always thought that it was the whole white cell (leukycyte sp?) that was passed in the first few days of nursing a newborn.

Isn't a main reason witnesses can accept blood fractions due to mother/fetus transmission?

sf

"It could be seen by some as a kind of spiritual rape,"

Watchtower corners the market on spiritual rapists.
What a hooty of a statement.
sKally

BluesBrother

As I read it ,the man Neal is out of line with his comments about "Spritual rape", or was he misquoted? After all no one really likes the idea of enforced medication and given the WT indoctrination about the dagers of blood, some that I know equate a blood product to being a certain means of contracting Aids, Hepatitus, or something equally nasty.

However the other person, Karen Scalaci was in favour of it and the guy from Brooklyn said

With PolyHeme, the church has determined it isn't whole blood, which poses a reconsideration.

So maybe this could be the breakthrough that allows the G B off the hook. After all if someone refuses it they can say that the person acted on their own conscience, because WT publications say that it is permissable as not being made from a primary componant.

Midget-Sasquatch

So maybe this could be the breakthrough that allows the G B off the hook. After all if someone refuses it they can say that the person acted on their own conscience, because WT publications say that it is permissable as not being made from a primary componant

I'm very hopeful of PolyHeme and its time that the cretins on the GB stopped requiring those senseless suicides. I'm more prone to think that its the WT lawyers that have been instigating these sorts of changes rather than any of the despots on the GB.

There still seems to be a fanatical streak within it that favours death over life. Here's a line from the June 15, 2004 WT (somewhere within par16-18) :

Moreover, some products derived from one of the four primary components may be so similar to the function of the whole component and carry on such a life-saving role in the body that most Christians would find them objectionable.

I'm praying that any of the overly impressionable dubs will not let this over-ride the loop-hole that now exists for PolyHeme.

observador

I read an argument on the latest Watchtower that talked about blood that goes like this: a component may play such a life saving role that may be objectionable to the true Christians....

What a load of...

Why would anyone take any blood treatment if it wasn't to save a life... (shaking head in disbelief)

"Sister Superzealous, we know you're very sick, but just keep in mind that this treatment involves components that play a life saving role, and you know that only the blood of Christ can save our lives, don't ya".

Observador.

AK - Jeff

According to AJWRB the organization, thru some HLC's has already allowed witnesses to use 'Hemopure', which is the bovine equivalent to the product mentioned here - just pure hemoglobin without the cell walls -as stated that is 97% of the RBC.

I think this is the direction that the organization is going to take - personally. They have to do it with great care and graduation to avoid lawsuits for wrongful deaths in the past. The new 'blood card' is the next step to making witnesses think they can chose for themeselves - next will come analogous transfusions, then a complete removal of the restrictions. They will maintain the doctrine for a long time - but will allow witness to excercise the conscience - thus protecting themselves from open accusation and litigation. It might become a non-issue in reality - just a doctrine kept with no punishment attached.

Just My Opinion

Jeff

Blood Substitute Vexes Jehovah's Witnesses

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