Jehovah witness..why you dont accept blood transfusions?

They have been misled by a pharisaic organization. Their position on blood transfusions is very unreasonable. The unreasonableness of their position on blood is reminiscent of the Pharisees' unreasonable, ultra-strict position on observing the sabbath. As Jesus chided the Pharisees for condemning him for doing healing work on the Sabbath, so too I can see him chiding the JWs for refusing to save the life of a child needing a transfusion when no alternatives are available. Do you remember the account of David and his men eating the showbread when they were famished, even though it was not lawful to do that? The way Jesus cited that example to highlight the need to apply the Law in a reasonable and merciful way - that alone shows up the JWs for the unreasonable pharisees that they are when it comes to abstaining from blood. (Mark 2:23-27) But I'll go further to show how their reasonings on the matter of blood transfusions fail in multiple ways.

First, while rightly claiming that blood is sacred because it represents life, they effectively turn around and implicitly despise the sanctity of life - and hence the sanctity of blood - by choosing death over a blood transfusion when no alternatives are available. This is a similar error in logic to the one Jesus himself criticized the pharisees for at Matthew 23:16,17. The best way to illustrate this massive circular logic failure in their reasoning is to think of a scenario where a professed patriot is faced with the only option of saving his country being the use of his nation's flag in a molotov cocktail to defeat the enemy. He reasons to himself that it is wrong to burn the flag because it shows disrespect to his nation so he allows his nation be defeated by the enemy rather than use the flag in that way to defeat the enemy. Some patriot!

Secondly, the command to abstain from blood, given at Acts 15:28,29, was clearly a reaffirming of OT laws forbidding the *eating* of blood (because eating blood as common food showed a lack of respect for its role on the altar as a means of atoning for sin - see Leviticus 17:10-12). The context in which the command was given makes this clear. Blood transfusions were not in use as a lifesaving medical procedure when the OT laws were given, nor when the apostles and older men of Jerusalem decided upon the counsel recorded at Acts 15. Therefore the author of Acts 15 certainly did not have blood transfusions in mind. So to apply Acts 15:28,29 to blood transfusions, one would have to show that blood transfusions can be reasonably equated with eating blood. JWs try to do this with faulty comparisons. They say that injecting alcohol has the same effect as drinking it to suggest that transfusing blood is the same as eating it. To the uneducated, the comparison seems, on the surface, to be fitting. But it actually fails miserably. Why?

Ethanol (alcohol), when eaten, is not digested in the alimentary canal, but absorbed as whole ethanol. So injected ethanol would already be a basic food element ready to be used in the blood as food the same as alcohol ingested orally. The situation with blood is very different. Blood is a complex liquid organ - not a basic food nutrient. So blood that is injected into the vessels during transfusion, goes to work, not as food, but as an organ - a liquid organ functioning in the veins as God purposed it! And since such function is for the preserving of life, it is a dignified, God-ordained function that does not violate the sanctity of blood. Blood that is eaten, however, must first be digested into basic nutrients before being absorbed. So taken orally, blood is treated by the body as food and this violates the bible's command to abstain from the eating of blood. But taken intravenously in a transfusion, blood goes to work as the liquid organ that it is and not as food. So the JWs equating of a blood transfusion to eating blood, can be compared with equating a liver transplant with eating liver.

Their very unreasonable position in forbidding blood transfusions can be compared to the very unreasonable position of the pharisees who sought to forbid Jesus from doing healing work on the sabbath. JWs need to go learn what this means: "I want mercy and not sacrifice." - Matthew 12:7

Here's a link to a wonderful blog posting that examines *all* the scriptures on the matter of blood (not just Acts 15:29) to show that the JWs' application of the prohibition to life-saving transfusions is clearly wrong:

http://meletivivlon.com/2013/09/10/jehovahs-witnes...

Wow!

It shows you have no idea about blood at all to say that we cannot give the illustration of alcohol lol

Of course blood transfusion weren't around, but actually - ancient babylon made the habit of doing a crude form of blood transfusions! So in effect they were around then. But this came into real effect in the WW1 when they invented blood transfusion in order to get the soldiers out quicker to fight!

Perhaps you can explain then, what happens when someone cannot eat and they are put on a drip and nutrients go in to their veins? For one thing, this happened to me and I was not a witness at the time. So just replace those nutrients for blood and voila!

I think you ought to go and do a bit of research on blood to be honest and then come back with your argument. I take it also that you are not aware that blood is a live organism and thus, they are always finding new microbes? Or perhaps you are have no idea why people have to stay in hospital for a certain time period? This is because their bodies can reject blood ie see it as a foreign body.

So all in all actually the bible does say to abstain from blood. And the reason is because to our Creator, blood is sacred ie His son shed his blood for us and therefore, expects christians to adhere this command and it will go well for us.

A woman I once spoke to had it in for us because her friend went into hospital for a serious operation and a witness did too ie for the same operation. The only difference was that her friend had a blood transfusion and the witness didn't. Well her friend died of blood complications and our witness went home the same day and well and thus this woman hated us for her friend's death!

Another like you was bashing us for this and then lol said that if she was allowed to, she would be still giving blood and when asked about: allowed to -she said that because of her age and health, she is banned from giving blood!

Our leaders as you rather disparagingly put it, are following the ultimate leader, our Creator.

Because of us, many hospitals are now entertaining none blood operations and thus, the day you may find yourself needing a blood transfusion but wait a minute - there is not your blood type available, you will soon be thanking us for them being able to save your life without a blood transfusion.

So tell me this: you are given a choice of blood that is contaminated or another product that is not blood. Which would you choose? Now in your logic, you would choose the blood because as you say, that is the only one that can save lives - but the snag is that you will die because you caught a disease from it!

I strongly think you should do yourself a service and look up the history of blood transfusions and the facts about it, before you blast us for our stand!

First, let me begin by letting you know that any question you may have about Jehovah's Witnesses (Isaiah 43:10) can be found on www.jw.org. You can click on "publications" and then "online Library"

Does the Bible’s prohibition include human blood?

Yes, and early Christians understood it that way. Acts 15:29 says to “keep abstaining from . . . blood.” It does not say merely to abstain from animal blood. (Compare Leviticus 17:10, which prohibited eating “any sort of blood.”) Tertullian (who wrote in defense of the beliefs of early p. 73Christians) stated: “The interdict upon ‘blood’ we shall understand to be (an interdict) much more upon human blood.”—The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. IV, p. 86.

Is a transfusion really the same as eating blood?

In a hospital, when a patient cannot eat through his mouth, he is fed intravenously. Now, would a person who never put blood into his mouth but who accepted blood by transfusion really be obeying the command to “keep abstaining from . . . blood”? (Acts 15:29) To use a comparison, consider a man who is told by the doctor that he must abstain from alcohol. Would he be obedient if he quit drinking alcohol but had it put directly into his veins?

In the case of a patient that refuses blood, are there any alternative treatments?

Often simple saline solution, Ringer’s solution, and dextran can be used as plasma volume expanders, and these are available in nearly all modern hospitals. Actually, the risks that go with use of blood transfusions are avoided by using these substances. The Canadian Anaesthetists’ Society Journal (January 1975, p. 12) says: “The risks of blood transfusion are the advantages of plasma substitutes: avoidance of bacterial or viral infection, transfusion reactions and Rh sensitization.” Jehovah’s Witnesses have no religious objection to the use of nonblood plasma expanders.

Jehovah’s Witnesses actually benefit from better medical treatment because they do not accept blood. A doctor writing in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology (June 1, 1968, p. 395) acknowledged: “There is no doubt that the situation where you [the surgeon] are operating without the possibility of transfusion tends to improve your surgery. You are a little bit more aggressive in clamping every bleeding vessel.”

All types of surgery can be performed successfully without blood transfusions. This includes open-heart operations, brain surgery, amputation of limbs, and total removal of p. 74cancerous organs. Writing in the New York State Journal of Medicine (October 15, 1972, p. 2527), Dr. Philip Roen said: “We have not hesitated to perform any and all indicated surgical procedures in the face of proscribed blood replacement.” Dr. Denton Cooley, at the Texas Heart Institute, said: “We became so impressed with the results [from using nonblood plasma expanders] on the Jehovah’s Witnesses that we started using the procedure on all our heart patients.” (The San Diego Union, December 27, 1970, p. A-10) “‘Bloodless’ open-heart surgery, originally developed for adult members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses sect because their religion forbids blood transfusions, now has been safely adapted for use in delicate cardiac procedures in infants and children.”—Cardiovascular News, February 1984, p. 5.

Have you or any other thought about God's thought of blood. If you have studied the bible, it clearly states his position about what happens when the blood leaves ANY body.

“For the soul of the flesh is in the blood, and I myself have put it upon the altar for you to make atonement for your souls, because it is the blood that makes atonement by the soul in it.” (Le 17:11)

“The soul of every sort of flesh is its blood.” (Le 17:14)

Life and blood are both sacred to Jehovah. We know we are not to commit murder because life is precious to Jehovah and anyone that takes a life, he sees it as taking away a gift that he has given. He is the owner of that gift. Since life cannot be sustained without blood, then blood to life is a gift that he is the owner. That is why you will see scriptures that he asks for the blood back by it being poured onto the ground.

Blood was to be poured as a basis for forgiveness of sin to the Israelite. If one were to drink it, then it was not given for sin atonement and thus would be an act of selfishness and disregard for the gift that Jehovah has given. This is how important that blood was to be handled properly. If they did not atone for their sins by pouring the blood, then they were still not forgiven and would receive an adverse judgment. Heb 9:22 "Yes, nearly all things are cleansed with blood according to the Law, and unless blood is poured out no forgiveness takes place."

What about today? It says to not drink it in those days and today we don't drink but inject. Is there a medical difference? You will time and time again ignore that there is NO medical difference. Food eaten still will infiltrate to your blood and be carried throughout your body.. Blood injected into your body will still run throughout your body. That is why you don't want to hear about the alcohol theory because you can't refute it.

That is like someone saying the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. You say: No I don't want to hear that..it MUST rise another way!!

We dont get taught what to answer by any leader! We are encouraged to research and study. You are obviously aware of the example of alcohol being taken by mouth or transfusion - are you an ex JW?

Anyways, its not just that scripture - all through the Bible it is made clear that blood is sacred and is the life of a person. From Genesis to Revelation this is repeated over and over. You can see that Satan has the same sort of idea as he encourages so much blood shed and currently we are being overwhelmed by literature and films/tv dealing with blood sucking. Blood is sacred. Jehovah says to abstain from blood - not to not eat it. We listen to him as he created us and knows what is best for us.

BUT, dont forget we have a lot of alternatives to whole blood. In fact it has been proven that whole blood often causes the death - by shock - or delays recuperation in a patient. Other methods are much safer and more effective.

On top of that add the hundreds of thousands dead or currently on a death sentence from being infected by AIDS, hepatitis and CJD (to mention just three major causes) having accepted blood transfusions.

It may also interest you that the american military has been so impressed by the results of bloodless surgery that they are sponsoring training of their own surgeons in the methods used for JWs.

All in all, there really isnt an argument in favour of blood transfusions.

The issue of blood is and has been a very controversial one. Medically speaking, blood transfusions have prolonged many lives, yet many of these very ones eventually die not knowing God nor the Christ who was sent as at John 17:3.

Truth be told, blood transfusions were first utilized en bloc during the world war, with many dying from complications from the transfusions.

Today, bloodless surgeries are being introduced to more and more hospitals and the benefits of non-blood transfusions or bloodless surgeries are being appreciated by more and more individuals and institutions.

Biblically, the abstinence from blood does preclude the use of blood transfusions. However, since there will always be trace quantities of blood remaining after bleeding the animal, this allows for the use of minute traces of blood as in inoculations etc. in healthcare.

There are various methods of reuse of an individual's own blood, and dialysis is acceptable.

Leviticus 17: 14; reads: For the soul of every sort of flesh is its blood by the

soul of it. Consequently I said to the sons of Israel: "You must not eat the blood of any sort of flesh, because the soul of every sort of flesh is its blood. Anyone eating it WILL BE CUT OFF.

Leviticus 7:26, 27 read: "And you MUST NOT eat any blood in any places

where you dwell, whether that of fowl or that of beast.

Any soul who eats any blood, that soul MUST BE CUT OFF from his people.

Acts 21:25.

As for the believers from among the nations, we have sent out, rendering our decision that they should keep themselves from what is sacrificed to idols as well as from blood and what is strangled and from fornication.

see also Acts 15: 28, 29.

There is nothing in the bible that prohibits transfusion or transplant of blood. Even Jews who were the target of this prohibition understand today that blood transfusions are outside of the scope of this prohibition.

The pouring of blood on the ground was meant to pay for the life which was taken by killing the animal. Now compare this with blood transfusions. Which life is taken? None. Is there any price to be paid? Clearly not.

Is eating blood the same as transfusing blood? of course not. Transfused blood is not digested or processed by the body in any way. It is simply transplanted.

Leave it to the Watchtower society to shroud this with a good dose of fuzzy logic, leaving Jehovah Witnesses with half truths about the subject.

Do you love your wife (husband) enough that you would be willing to risk your life for her (him)? . . . There are also men who risk their lives for their country, and they are viewed as heroes, aren’t they? But there is someone who is greater than any person or thing here on earth, and that is God. Would you risk your life because of love for him and loyalty to his rulership?’ The issue here really is loyalty to God. It is God’s Word that tells us to abstain from blood. (Acts 15:28, 29)

There are many things that are rather common today and that Jehovah’s Witnesses shun—for example, lying, adultery, stealing, smoking, and as you mentioned, the use of blood. Why? Because we govern our lives by God’s Word. Perhaps you recall that God told our first parents, Adam and Eve, that they could eat from every tree in Eden except one. But they disobeyed, ate that forbidden fruit, and lost everything. Now, of course, there is no tree with forbidden fruit. But after the Flood of Noah’s day God again set out one prohibition for mankind. This time it involved blood. (Gen. 9:3, 4) So the real question is, Do we have faith in God? If we obey him, we have before us the prospect of eternal life in perfection under his Kingdom. Even if we die, he assures us of a resurrection.

This does not means that we let ourselves die. There exist many alternatives that we use instead of blood. We have seen how the patient recuperates better and in less time. But above all we obey God's command to obtain from blood.

The Way

Actually, if your in current news, it seems the world want's to head in the direction of bloodless surgery.

Why, be so blood thirsty?

http://www.pennmedicine.org/bloodless/

http://www.englewoodhospital.com/ms_bloodless_home...

http://www.georgetownuniversityhospital.org/body_d...

http://www.trinitashospital.org/bloodless_medicine...

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/12466831/ns/health-healt...

Here is a video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3_wfQgZeyM

You see some of the comments here? Are these people really interested in your well being? Or do they want to be right at all costs?

EDIT: Caribbean man, your blinded by your own logic, Christians should be a worldwide brotherhood,

Not separated by ones flag. There would be less nationalistic wars if Christians did not get involved.

But yet, you approve of brothers killing brothers. By the way, even the military is looking into bloodless surgery.

It would be better if the wars stop.

Here is one on the military

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UB8c-B9hxZs

Anyways, Caribean man, it's not just here but world wide brotherly love

http://www.jw.org/en/news/by-region/africa/tanzani...

Thank you for asking. Every Bibles has these verses.......

(Acts 15:20) but to write them to abstain from things polluted by idols and from fornication and from what is strangled and from blood.

(Acts 15:28, 29) For the holy spirit and we ourselves have favored adding no further burden to You, except these necessary things, 29 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!”

O.k. I won't give an example of alcohol.

If you were told to ABSTAIN from Coca-Cola, would it be o.k. to INJECT IT INTO YOUR VEINS with a needle or I.V.?

ABSTAIN means ABSTAIN.......AVOID the use of it ALL together.

The real question is...WHY DON'T OTHER PEOPLE OBEY GOD'S WORD THE BIBLE?

When others are out spilling blood at war, Jehovah's Witnesses are the people most Recognized for being neutral and peaceful. We really listen to Almighty God Jehovah and His Son Christ Jesus.

We listen and obey God's Word and follow Christ's lead.

i am not jehovah witness but a christian.

i do not drink blood ... the bible CLEARLY states this.

that means i do not allow foreign / someone else's blood into my system ...

so i guess you do not drink blood but ...

you can eat it,

transfuse it into you ?

' Think critical and answer from your critical mind! '

look who's talking ... hehe