Do Jehovah’s Witnesses not believe in prolonging life?

Question

are they against using any medical help in prolonging life or just certain things like blood transfusions?

Answer 1

Yes we do believe in prolonging our lives and we long for the promisis that are held out in the scriptures for everlasting life on this paradise earth.
To abstain from blood has been a long Bible standard for all of GODS people .Acts 25:28. Gen 9:3,4, Acts 15:19,20, Leviticus 17:13-16. Leviticus 17: 11-12 Acts 15:29.

So what do you do if your doctor says you need a blood trasfusion or else you will die. Well first of all you don't have a very good doctor or surgical team.
Ask for a Non Blood Medical Management Team . If they can't find one call the Watch Tower Track Society or the University of Mass. Medical Center @508-856-2715 or call Harford Hospital @ 1-800-684-3334 ask for The Center For Bloodless Medicine and Surgery.

Many hospitals are changing over to bloodless medicine finding out that there are less complications, less infections, faster recovery, less deaths, less communication of diseases known and unknown.

So what do you ask your profusioness and what alternatives are there.
Cell Saver
Tubligation Recovery
Hemodilution
Oxmetry
Volume Expanders
Synthetic Erythropoietin
Lasers
Endoscopy
Epidural Blood Patch
Plasmapheresis
Platelet Gel Autologous
Hemodilution
Dialysis
Iron fusion
The methods of applying each of these medical procedures vary from physician to physician. You should have your physician explain exactly what is invovled in any proposed procedure to ensure that it is in harmony with Bible princibles and with your own conscientious decisions.

There are now some 400 Hospitals accross the country that have a center for Bloodles Medicine. They are finally finding something out that we knew for thousands of years.

Sincerely yours,

Fred M. Hunter [e-mail]

Answer 2

Jehovah's Witnesses use the medical field to the full to prolong life, with the exception of blood transfusions. Over time, even some blood treatment has become so advanced or broken down into different fractions, that each Jehovah's Witness will need to use their own bible trained conscience to decide what's right for them and their family. Whole blood, or the 4 major fractions --- red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, and plasma --- are the most easily definable as being unacceptable, after that, it's each conscience to their own.

As an organization, there has been done much research on the different techniques, and as the field grows, so does our research to give us the most informed decisions we can make.

Answer 3

I wish you could see my face so I could say "Read my lips" "We are ONLY opposed to blood transfusions!"

We go so far as to research alternatives to use instead of blood. We give a stack of information to the doctor. It is up to the doctor to comply with our wishes.

Read my best answer regarding why Jehovah's Witnesses do not accept blood. I answered it when I first came to Y/A.

Answer 4

When Jehovah's Witnesses are ill, they seek the very best medical treatment available, only drawing the line at accepting blood. Bloodless medicine has advanced tremendously because of the stand they have taken and many doctors are willing to even perform bloodless surgery.

Answer 5

Actually, JWs do believe in prolonging life, but not by a mere few decades, but by using their intelligence to live for tens of thousands of years.

They use advanced medical treatments, with the exception of Blood, to extend life, but they also do not fear death. My mother has am implanted defibrillator. If my stepfather passes, she does not intend to have the battery replaced, the next time it runs down. He had a stroke two years ago and has been fighting skin cancer. Here's something I wrote about him for Father's Day:
http://www.uexpress.com/dearabby/?uc_full_date=20050619

Answer 6

Of course we believe in staying alive. We do not accept blood. Jehovah created humans with free will and reasoning abilities to use to make choices. We all, regardless of faith, must make choices regarding procedures. I personally HATE needles. So if I can avoid them I try:)

Answer 7

Jehovah Witnesses don't use any medical assistants that might prolong their life,because you die when you are meant to.

Answer 8

Actually, respect for blood (and life itself) is the only consideration common to Jehovah's Witnesses' view of medical treatment. Of course, Jehovah's Witnesses also reject "alternate" treatments related to witchcraft and supernatural.

Jehovah's Witnesses are interested in prolonging, preserving, and protecting life, and they believe in getting the best medical care available for themselves and their families. Many individuals among Jehovah's Witnesses are themselves physicians and other health care professionals.

It is sad when those who have theological differences with the Witnesses actively work to spread misinformation about their beliefs. The fact is that Jehovah's Witnesses have hundreds of hospital liaison committees around the globe to help advance nonblood medical management technologies and awareness in the medical community.

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.


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