Why can't Jehovah's Witnesses get blood transfusions?

The Bible forbids the misuse of blood. (Acts 15:28,29)

He's your boyfriend- if you plan on marrying him, you should be able to discuss these things!!

*owl hug* (((Tears down there))) OvO

Ask him.

I'm a Witness. In 2000 I had back surgery, both a diskeptomy and laminectomy on both lumbar 4 and 5 and a herniated disk. (I hope I spelled those correctly).

I would not and did not consider a blood transfusion. I did accept the use of a cell saver, but it was not even needed in the surgery because the loss of blood was so minimal.

A good surgeon will respect the issue and offer to use "bloodless surgery" and alternatives to work thru the surgery.

My husband is a Witness also. He is also a hemophiliac, and has had 30 surgeries in 30 years, all without blood or blood products of any kind.

He needs to do his homework on what alternatives there are, talk openly to the doctors, and obviously the scriptures and prayer are essential.

You can also be very familiar with the information. Knowing what is available will make any surgery less stressful and will make recuperation better.

No offense or anything, but what I can't figure out is why he would be your boyfriend in the first place if he was one of Jehovah's Witnesses.

You realize that they are normally pretty serious about not dating outside their religion don't you? (1Cor 7:39).

Is he an active Witness in good standing with his congregation?

And as for the blood issue, it revolves mainly around the commandment given at Acts 15:29 to abstain from blood. In a sense this command is repeated twice in that the verse also says to abstain from things strangled (because strangled animals would still have the blood in them) (Leviticus 17:10-16).

Blood has always been very sacred in God's eyes, and has been expressed many times throughout the pages of the Bible (Genesis 9:4; Leviticus 3:17; 7:26; Deuteronomy 12:16; 12:23; 1Samuel 14:32). Its sacredness did not cease with the death of Christ like other rules of the Mosaic Law; hence the reason why Christians were told to "KEEP abstaining" from it by the apostles and older men.

And for more information on what the Bible says on blood, and in turn why your boyfriend made the decision that he did, I will refer you to several articles on the subject:

http://www.watchtower.org/e/current_topi...

Just scroll down to the search box at the bottom right corner of the page and type in "blood."

You also shouldn't worry too much about your boyfriends safety either. Jehovah's Witnesses have been pioneering safer and more effective bloodless surgeries for many years now. And if he's contacted the Hospital Liaison Committee at all, then I can assure you that he's in good hands.

A'gape =)

The Bible record shows that early in mankind鈥檚 history that god expressed himself on the issue of blood. Right after the global flood, when God first granted humans the right to eat animal flesh, he commanded Noah and his family: 鈥淓very moving animal that is alive may serve as food for you. As in the case of green vegetation, I do give it all to you. Only flesh with its soul鈥攊ts blood鈥攜ou must not eat.鈥濃€擥enesis 9:3, 4.

the new testament also spoke on the issue

Acts 15:28, 29 says :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!鈥?br>
So we are told to Abstain from it. that is not just referring to eating but transfusions too.

If you knew as much as we do about what blood transfusions can do to you, you wouldn't want him to have one. Also if you knew as much as we do about how much better the alternative (bloodless surgery) was for the outcome of the patient, you would be glad he is not going with the blood transfusion thing.

We con't take blood because in the Bible God held blood to be sacred. The only proper use for it was for sacrifices.

But we have also fournd that obeying God's law ALWAYS works out for our benefit. Surgeons and doctors have developed better methods of doing their work because Jehovah's Witness patients refuse blood.

They have learned that the cost is lower (without blood) that the recovery time is quicker, and that the danger from secondary diseases due to blood is very much reduced. There are so many alternative methods now of assisting a patient without the use of blood that they have developed whole hospitals that do not use blood on any of their patients (or very much try not to ever at least) because of the benefits.

Your boyfriend will be fine. Don't worry, we have a "hospital liason" committee who will help him to get the right doctors who can do what needs doing without blood. He won't risk getting hepatitis or AIDS or some ot the other blood borne diseases. He won't have to spend extra time in the hospital while his body's immune system works overtime due to the foreign material (of other people's blood in him).

And the cost. I was looking at something the other day that said a unit (a pint) of blood costs 1,600 dollars (or was it 16,000? can't remember) to the patient. All the while it is donated to the blood bank for free. Hmmm. Makes you wonder doesn't it? Where does the rest of that cost come from?

because they misinterpret some ancient text in the OT that says not to EAT blood.

well, the OT also says to execute homosexuals and people who work on the sabbath.

JW's are the best at picking and choosing which OT passages to follow. the ultimate hypocrites.

Some believe that the sins of the blood donor are transmitted to the person getting the blood.