A woman in my town had to have an emergency C-section. Her husband and her mother were there. Her husband and she were Jehova's Witnesses, and her mother is Catholic. During the C-section she started hemmoraging and she passed out. The doctors told her husband she needed a blood transfusion to save her life. Of course her mother said to give it to her, but it was up to the husband, who stated that JW's dont believe in blood transfusions and she couldn't have one. They tried other things, but told the husband again that she needed the transfusuion or she would die, but he stood by his beliefs. Well she ended up dying on the table, never meeting her baby. Her parents are very very upset over this obviously too. Now this of course has sparked a lot of conversation around town and I was wondering why blood transfusions are prohibited, even in cases like this. I just cant imagine that God wouldn't want a baby to be raised by his/her mom. Any insight and/or thoughts on this would be great.
2007-12-28T17:10:17Z
I've never seen this question posted before, so sorry if it's "getting old". I'm being very genuine in asking this.
Martin S2007-12-28T17:10:15Z
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JW's have misapplied God's prohibition against eating the blood of an animal because according to the Bible it is the "life" of the animal.
The Bible doesn't say anything about blood transfusions because they were not around when it was written. They have added their own interpretation to God's command and this poor man, his deceased wife, his new baby, and his wife's family have reaped the consequences of bad theology.
It's likely that the hospital did not know how to treat this patient WITHOUT blood. If I had stayed at a certain hospital it would of been death for me as they did not know how to treat me without the use of blood and were not willing to consider it. My husband got me out of there and rushed me to a hospital which has a bloodless medicine program.
But to answer your original question it's a biblical command Lev. 17:14 (don't tell me that this doesn't apply to our day because back in Bible times they didn't have blood transfusions) When you can't eat they "feed" you through a feeding tube. The same applies with blood trans. Taking blood into your body through your veins is the equivalent of eating it. Contrary to popular belief there aren't thousands of JW kids dying because their parents don't believe in transfusion. All the more PROMINENT hospitals these days are practicing "bloodless medicine". Atlanta Medical Center, Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic just to name a few. They aren't practicing bloodless medicine for the sake of nearly 7 million Jehovah's Witnesses (a small part of the population) but they have found that the Bible was correct all along. People who don't take blood recover quicker, have less complications and don't incur AIDS and Hepatitus from transfusions. The medical technology available today enables us to get excellent care without taking blood transfusions. For more info. http://www.watchtower.org/e/vcae/article...
In the Watchtower Society or Jehovah Witnesses, It is believed that blood transfusions equate to blood consumption which biblically it is prohibited in the old testament as well prohibited in the new testament. So JW interpret blood transfusion with eating/nutrition. The bible forbids consuming animal blood.
Acts 15:28,29 For the holy spirit and we ourselves have favored adding no further burden to you, except these necessary things, to keep abstaining from things sacrificed to idols and from BLOOD and from things strangled and from fornication. If you carefully keep yourselves from these things, you will prosper. Good health to you!”
Acts 24:15 and I have hope toward God, which hope these men themselves also entertain, that there is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous.
John 5:28, 29a Do not marvel at this, because the hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice and come out
The only use for blood allowed in the Bible was for sacrifice for sins. Jesus was the only human who could give that and we only take "emblems" of his blood and body, not them literally. So it is respect for life, for sacrifice esp. for the ranson of God's son Jesus Christ....
I have had a c-section myself and then a VBAC with my next one (after I'd had carotid artery replacement). Sad stories of death are the rare ones, the exceptions, not the norm for us.
Refusing blood gives us much lower medical costs, much better care, shorter recovery time, no disease risk, etc.
We have to deal with separation from our families by being murdered for other things to: for example, we will not kill or harm others. In Nazi Germany, many of us were killed for that. Men were taken to prison areas for men, women to women areas and children were removed to youth camps to try to indoctrinate them with Hitler's ideas.
We are used to being this way. God's servants in the Bible often were too.....the Jews were scattered many times for obedience to God and their children, women taken as slaves, men killed. They continued to teach and witness and live exemplary lives wherever they were taken just as we JWs do today.