Why do Jehovah's Witnesses refuse blood transfusions?

Reasoning

A better question is why would you want one. Less than 10% of those refusing blood are JWs. I won't have one. According to an upcoming PBS program on the subject, all hospitals now offer alternatives to transfusions to all patients.

We had a conference here of representatives from international blood banks. Some women from England said we were seriously fooling ourselves is we thought transfusiion were anywhere near being safe in the U.S. Due to the big money earned from it, a serious problem has been developing with overbleeding, which causes the body to produce clotting chemicals. This can prove dangerous for the reveiver of the blood.

JWs believe in the Bible as the word of God and it is for everyone's lasting benefit to follow it. We follow the Bible's command to abstain from blood stated in Acts 15:29. Eventhough we do not accept transfusion of blood, we accept others ALTERNATIVES to blood transfusion. We believe that putting any sort of blood in our body is a serious sin that we can loose our chance of the life promised by God and Jesus.
The Israelites, who ate blood, were cut off from God's people. See Lev 17:10.


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 15:29 - to keep abstaining from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication

Jesus has something AGAINST Pergamum, i.e., to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit fornication, which REFLECTS the original instructions in Acts 15:29. Also, Jesus has something AGAINST some in Thyatira because Jezebel misleads Jesus鈥?slaves to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed to idols (From the original instruction in Acts 15:20, 29)? Many years have passed when the Apostle John wrote Revelation but the instruction from Acts 15:20,29 is still in effect.

Have you noticed the difference of Acts 15:29 & Gen 9:4? Gen 9:4 was specific (do not EAT blood) while Acts 15:29 was general (ABSTAIN FROM BLOOD) . Why do you think Acts 15:29 has become a 鈥済eneral鈥?instruction instead of being 鈥渟pecific鈥?instruction? Instead of stating 鈥渁bstain from EATING/Drinking blood鈥?or 鈥渁bstain from blood shed in death鈥?it only stated an all encompassing instruction 鈥渁bstain from blood鈥?


If someone died because of wrong blood type transfused OR got AIDS and died because of blood transfusion, who will be accounted for the cause of death? The one who transfused the blood, the who one gave his blood or the one who accepted it?


If you are allergic to nuts, the doctor will only say, 鈥渁bstain from nuts鈥? that covers everything, that is, nothing to be taken orally and to be transfused.


Lev 17:10 states 鈥溾€楢s for any man of the house of Israel or some alien resident who is residing as an alien in YOUR midst who eats any sort of blood鈥?br>
Notice ANY SORT OF BLOOD, so no faithful follower of God, eats blood of any sorts, animal or human. That鈥檚 why humans cannot drink or eat animal or human blood.

The prohibition for blood is repeated in Acts 15:28-29 but instead of just saying do not EAT blood, Acts 15 changed it to ABSTAIN FROM BLOOD, which is a general term to encompass not only eating, drinking of any sort of blood but the future use of blood in the body, which includes transfusion.

Notice too that the Bible doesn鈥檛 say abstain from nuclear bombs nor abstain from cannibalism, but the underlying principles found in the Bible can help us determine that we have to abstain from those things.


Eventhough blood transfusion is being practiced for many years now, researchers are still discovering some facts about blood transfusion.

For example is a news I think a few weeks back, it states

鈥淚t doesn't matter how much oxygen is being carried by red blood cells, it cannot get to the tissues that need it without nitric oxide," said Dr. Jonathan Stamler of Duke University, leader of one of the research groups.

Blood vessels relax and constrict to regulate blood flow and nitric oxide opens up blood vessels, allowing red blood cells to deliver oxygen, he explained.

"If the blood vessels cannot open, the red blood cells back up in the vessel and tissues go without oxygen. The result can be a heart attack or even death," he said.鈥?br>

There are some alternatives to blood, that each individual JWs can use depending upon their conscience.


Here are some excerpt from a news.

鈥淔or the past 30 years, Dr. Estioko, currently medical director at St. John's Transfusion-Free Medicine and Surgery Center in Santa Monica, California, has performed surgeries on high-risk heart patients from all over the world, specializing in repeat operations and multiple valve surgeries.

This is a higher level of surgical technique," Dr. Estioko stresses. "Not everybody can do this type of operation. In fact, many surgeons who are not so good, they don't even attempt it because it is more exacting, more demanding. It really attracts those who have more expertise in the field."

Estioko spent 11 years in New York, where he was also professor at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine. In 1990, he moved to California to be part of the Kay Medical Group in Los Angeles in 1990, a cardiac surgery group where he stayed for 14 years before moving on to St. John's Health Center.鈥?br>

Notice he said 鈥淣OT EVERYBODY can do this type of operation. In fact, many surgeons who are NOT SO GOOD, they don't even attempt it because it is more exacting, more demanding. It really attracts those who have more expertise in the field鈥?



Have you asked that doctor about 鈥渘itric oxide鈥?considering that the donated blood lost much of it? Have you read this news?

http://www.kansascity.com/news/nation/st...

It states in part:
For years, physicians noticed that patients who received transfusions of banked blood were MORE LIKELY TO DIE than those who got NO BLOOD.
Duke University researchers believe they know why 鈥?and how the problem might be solved.
Donated blood almost immediately begins to lose a gas that opens vessels so oxygen and nutrients get to tissues, the Duke researchers report. Without that gas 鈥?nitric oxide 鈥?the vessels stay closed, blood can鈥檛 deliver its precious cargo, and patients founder, the scientists suggest in two articles published online in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Other doctors supports bloodless medicine.

http://www.englewoodhospital.com/medserv...


If a certain doctor would like to commit fornication with your own child first, before curing him, are you as a parent will abide by that? Are you sacrificing your own child鈥檚 life if you, as a parent, do not permit the fornication or are you protecting your own child as a person that you love?


You normally won鈥檛 allow that bad thing to happen because you believe that fornication is a sin, and is disrespecting and abusing your own kid and you love your kid. JWs believe that having a blood transfusion into our bodies, is a sin and a disrespect and abuse for our own bodies and our own kids.


Just like fornication, the use of blood in the body is one of things we have to abstain from according to Acts 15.

The abstention in Acts 15:29 is not only limited for the use of blood to be in the body but also fornication.We have to abstain from fornication and the use of blood inside our human body.

In the old testament the bible says to abstain from blood. It is very clear. The funny thing is that JW's just picked that one thing out of the old testament. They eat pork and shellfish. Women are allowed to go out in public during their menstruation. I guess they pick and choose what they want to follow.

Jehovah's Witnesses believe that the scriptures demonstrate a clear pattern indicating the sacredness with which Jehovah God (and thus god-fearing humankind) views all creature blood.


Predates Mosaic Law.. ..
For example, over a thousand years before the birth of Moses, the pre-Israel, pre-Jewish, pre-Hebrew man Noah received what the scriptures record as only the second restrictive command on humans (after Garden of Eden's tree):

"Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. For your lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning; of every beast I will require it [that is, lifeblood] and of man" (Genesis 9:3-5)


Jewish Law.. ..
Later, God's feeling regarding blood was codified into the Mosaic Law. This part of the Law dealing with blood was unique in that it applied, not just to Israel, but also to non-Jewish foreigners among them. It's also interesting that besides forbidding the consumption of blood, the Law also mandated that it be 'poured out on the ground', not used for any purpose.

"No person among you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger who sojourns among you eat blood. Any man also of the people of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among them, who takes in hunting any beast or bird that may be eaten shall pour out its blood and cover it with dust." (Lev 17:12,13)

By comparison, it's significant that the Law also forbid the consumption of ceremonial animal fat, but that didn't apply to non-Jewish foreigners and it DID allow the fat to be used for other purposes.

"The LORD said to Moses, "Say to the people of Israel, You shall eat no fat, of ox, or sheep, or goat. The fat of an animal that dies of itself, and the fat of one that is torn by beasts, may be put to any other use" (Lev 7:22-24)


Early Christian era.. ..
The Christian era ended the validity of the Mosaic Law, but remember that the restriction on eating blood preceded the Mosaic Law by over a thousand years. Still, does the New Testament indicate that Jehovah God changed his view of blood's sacredness?

"[God] freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses" (Eph 1:6,7)

"[God's] beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins... and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood" (Colossians 1:13-20)

"we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, but should write to them to abstain from the pollutions of idols and from unchastity and from what is strangled and from blood." (Acts 15:19,20)

"For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from unchastity." Acts 15:28,29


Modern times.. ..
Some will claim that the bible's command to "abstain" from blood only applies to eating it, and does not apply to the use of blood for other purpose. If that form of respect for blood were common among Christendom, one might wonder then why so many (who ostensibly follow the book of Acts) so happily eat their blood sausage and blood pudding if they truly respect blood according to some limited understanding of Acts 15:20,29. In fact, respect for blood and for Acts and for the Scriptures themselves is too rare among even supposedly god-fearing persons.

An honest review of the Scriptural pattern over the millenia from Noah to the Apostle Paul teaches humans that blood is to be used for a single purpose: acknowledging the Almighty. Otherwise, for centuries the instruction was to simply dispose of it; 'poor it upon the ground'. When Jehovah's Witnesses pursue non-blood medical management, they are working to honor and obey their Creator.

They can accept one in Bulgaria.

But basically they have a misunderstanding of what a blood transfusion is all about. I have listened to JWs equate that to eating blood.

wow thats a good question but i really dont know

what?

there is a verse in the bible that says - do not eat or drink blood.

Having a blood transfusion is the same as eating blood - thats how the JWs interpret that verse.

And because of that belief, many many children have died because their parents refuse to let them receive life saving blood.

Ignorance of the scriptures. Why don't Jews hold the same belief about blood transfusions, but won't eat blood in their food? Where are the JW Hebrew scholars who know more than the Jews about avoiding blood. Come to that, where are the JW scholars, whose names can't be published to spare embarrassment.

Footnote: If you eat blood, it does not directly turn into blood in your veins. Eating blood and transfusing blood are therefoire two completely different processes.Transfusions were a much later development and could not have been known about by those Moses was commanding.