Why Jehovah's Witness faith dosen't allow blood transfusion?

Question

What if person really needs that??

Answer 1

I have personally witnessed a scene in a hospital about 20 years ago where a dying teenager needed blood transfusion but his relatives (his parents were already dead and he didn't know it--they were in the same car accident) didn't allow the doctor to do the transfusion. This happened in Asia.

That young man lived. "Thanks to Jehovah" the relatives leapt and shouted so the nurses would hear(they were involved in a rather heated argument on the transfusion issue with the medical staff) yet what they didn't know was that all those time the nurses took the boy from the ICU for "tests" every after several minutes, they were giving him blood.

Three weeks ago, in Portland, I overheard a radio discussion of the right of a parent/relative to decide for the patient versus the oath of doctors to keep patients alive. A complicated issue. One could in fact, bring it down to Religious Right against Medical Science.

Answer 2

I studied the Bible with Jehovah's Witnesses for five years, and they do not believe in blood transfusions because of the law in Leviticus that states you must keep free from blood and not to eat of it...they consider a blood transfusion as eating since you can be fed intravenously. Also, the biblical admonition to "keep abstaining from blood" based on Acts 15:28, 29.

According to the conscience of the particular individual, they may accept derivatives of blood. In current medical practice, whole blood transfusions are very rare, and blood derivatives are used instead. Witnesses may accept a process called normovolemic hemodilution, a treatment that processes the individual's own blood in a closed loop that does not interrupt the circulation of blood, and delivers it immediately back into the person's body. Also left to conscience are procedures where a "quantity of blood is withdrawn in order to tag it or to mix it with medicine, whereupon it is put back into the patient."[71] Many members carry carefully prepared durable power of attorney documentation outlining their medical wishes with respect to blood.

A few years ago, a young boy on my street was hit by a van. He suffered internal injuries and needed a transfusion. His mother refused to agree to it, so the state took over and saw that he got the transfusion. I think that a lot of the witnesses know that it will be taken out of their hands, therefore the blame (at final judgment) will not be on them.

Answer 3

As the Jehovah's Witnesses commented, our refusal of blood transfusions is because of our respect for our Creator and his command to abstain from blood. I would like to add that doctors are beginning to realize that non-blood treatment is better than blood transfusions. Medical professionals have come up with many alternatives that are cheaper than blood transfusions, and avoid the dangers that accompany blood. I am going to include a link that discusses a little history of blood transfusions and also one that talks about the alternatives. I hope you will take the time to look at this info.
http://www.watchtower.org/library/g/2000/1/8/article_02.htm
http://www.watchtower.org/library/g/2000/1/8/article_03a.htm
http://www.watchtower.org/library/hb/index.htm?article=article_02.htm

Answer 4

Worldwide safety standards are highly variable, and treatments with blood are riskier that many assume. Physicians differ widely in their use of blood because of education, skills, and viewpoints. Yet, many are increasingly cautious about transfusing blood. A significant and growing number of doctors are showing a preference for medical treatments that avoid the use of blood. If the medical use of blood is increasingly questionable, is these another purpose that blood fulfulls?

OUR CREATOR AND BLOOD

Back in the days of Noah, an ancestor of all mankind, God laid down a remarkable law. While granting humans the right to eat the flesh of ansimals, he forbade them to consume the blood. (Gen. 9:4) He also gave them his reason, equating blood with the soul, or life, of the creature. He later said: “The soue (or life) is in the blood.” In the eyes of the Creator, blood is sacred. It represents the precious gift of life that each living soul possesses. God restated this principle again and again. Lev 3:17; 17:10, 11,14; Deut. 12:16,23.

Shortly after Christianity was founded some 2000 years ago, believers were give the divine commandment to “ABSTAIN from....blood.” The prohibition was based, not on health concersn, but on the sacredness of blood. (Acts 15:19, 20,29) Some argue that this God -given restriction applies only to the eating of blood, but the word “ABSTAIN” speaks for itself. If a doctor told us to abstain from alcolol, we would hardly feel at liverty to inject it into our veins.

The Bible further explains why blood is so sacred. The shed blood of Jesus Christ, representing the human life that he gave in behalf of mankind, is key to the Christian hope. It means forgiveness of sins and hope of eternal life. When a Christian abstains from blood, he is in effect expressing his faith that only the shed blood of Jesus Christ can truly redeem him and save his life. (Eph.1:7)

Jehovah's Witnesses are well known for taking these Bible commands to heart. They reject all transfusions involving whole blood or the four primary blood components -- redcells, plasma, white cells, and platelets.

In recent years more than a few doctors have recognized that Witnesses have benefited medically from adhering to the Bible's standard. A spine surgeon recently spoke out in favor of choosing alternatives to blood transfusions. He said: “It's absolutely the safest thing to do, not just for Jehovah's Witnesses, but for everyone.”

Answer 5

has to do with cleanliness aspects of the bible if I'm not mistaken.
my Sis-in-law was in a car accident years ago and needed blood transfusions, but refused them as J.W.'s do. her parents had to go to court and get an emergency order to give her blood. saved her life but then she had recuperation of over two years due to refusing transfusions needed for additional surgery. It really prolonged the agony and suffering but that was her bag. she some what recovered but took a lot longer that should have.

Answer 6

In the Old Testament law people were strictly forbidden from ingesting blood. The Jehovah's Witnesses believe that a blood tranfusion is a form of ingesting blood. Because of this they would rather be allowed to die than to break the Old Testament law.

Answer 7

Because the bible commands to abstain from blood...
Acts 15, verse 20 & 29.

Answer 8

for the same reason that if someone in your immediate family stops believing or wants to convert to another religion they're automatically outcasts.

Answer 9

Cause they are full of blood and don't need any more. Just like they are full s......, and don't know it.

Answer 10

Medical technology is now at the point where blood transfusions are medically unnecessary. Sadly, some old-fashioned physicians and many determined anti-Witnesses refuse to acknowledge that.

However, it is not the medical irrelevance of blood transfusions that motivate Jehovah's Witnesses. It is their sincere belief that the scriptures clearly demonstrate a 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.


Learn more:
http://watchtower.org/library/hb/index.htm
http://watchtower.org/library/vcnb/article_01.htm