Where do JWs get the idea that more people die from blood transfusions than survive?

Question

The attached link shows the risk of contracting a blood borne desease from a transfusion.

http://www.bloodbook.com/trans-risk.html

So where do they get their stats saying that there's a greater risk of dieing from a transfusion than surviving, when the average risk of contracting a blood borne desease in the USA from transfusion is just 1 in 340,000?

Also, when they say that there are alternatives to blood that can now be used, do they realise these so called alternatives are blood expanders, not substitutes. The situations where they are appropriate is limited by the amount of blood needed.

There is currently NO substitute to blood that will carry oxygen through the body.

Do they really think blood transfusions would be so heavily used if there were such great risks involved as what they claim?

Do they realise the main reason blood expanders are used where possible is to make that most out of the small amounts of blood that people kindly donate?

Answer 1

Honestly, I've watched JW's here and at my door tell DEMONSTRABLE LIES (Alex Trebek, anyone?) so I assume they're just lying!

Answer 2

When blood is donated it is scanned & tested for diseases etc. most can be picked up. However, some diseases cannot be detected in blood if the donor has recently contracted the disease. AIDS is one such disease. What this means is that if a person contracts AIDS and right away donates blood then that blood would be used in transfusions as it would be considered safe to use. This is just one problem the medical profession has with blood transfusions and until better detecting methods are developed then this will continue.

Also, because of Jehovah's Witnesses refusal of blood many medical breakthroughs have happened.
Because doctors know that JWs won't accept blood under any circumstances they have developed better medical care concerning this avenue. Most of the procedures & developments in this area have been enhanced because of this fact. JWs in some cases have furthered better medical procedures by allowing certain treatments (which have proved more beneficial than transfusions) to be tried on them first rather than accepting transfusions.

Lastly, many people who are not JWs refuse blood transfusions because they deem them unsafe. Many of these actually work in the medical profession. They know the alternatives are much safer. The difference is that donated blood works out a lot cheaper than alternatives but it has the risks.

Ask yourself this: if those in the medical profession are now refusing blood transfusions (when they see first hand the risks versus the benefits), what does that tell you?

Of course, as already been stated, Jehovah's Witnesses don't base their refusal on the risks that transfusions bring, but on the command given to all Christians
in Acts 15:28 & 29 "For the holy spirit and we ourselves have favored adding no further burden to you, except these necessary things, 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!”

Answer 3

I have never heard that JW's think the more people die from transfusions than survive, so I would like to know where you got that stat from.

JW believe blood is sacred and when the bible says to abstain from blood it also means blood transfusions.

Actually there is a substitute for blood that COULD be used. The milk from coconuts can be used as artificial blood. It carries Oxygen the same way blood does, with ZERO complications. But since it wouldnt be a big money maker for the hospital, its not used.

Blood transfusions are not necessary for most surgeries. My son had invasive Hip surgery done that -according to his doctor-they always use blood for. Now I refuse blood transfusions for my son, he refused as well(he is 11) The dr agreed to do the surgery with no blood. When he had his surgery the dr was amazed that he lost only 200cc of blood. My son recovered quickly with NO complications and his dr even told us that he thought it was because my son DIDNT have a transfusion.

Blood expanders are given to the person to expand the blood they have in their body already, without having to rely on transfused blood.
No govt can guarantee transfused blood is safe. There is an incubation period between infection with HIV and when they test positive. There will always be a risk with blood transfusions.


EDIT--to Nora2200-JW do not believe that only 144,000 will be saved and the rest damned to hellfire. They believe that 144,000 will rule as kings in heaven with Jesus, and the rest of righteous mankind will live forever on Earth in a paradise.

Answer 4

You know, in our video/dvd about why we refuse blood (and the alternatives out there), there is one statement a doctor made that stuck out in my mind. He said that the only doctor who would refuse to perform a bloodless surgery is a careless doctor.
Some people feel that JW's try to refuse health care. This is not true. Jehovah's Witnesses just want the best healthcare possible (and yes, without blood).
All kinds of surgeries have been performed without blood transfusions.
There are too many risks (plus the Bible does tell us to abstain from blood).
Jehovah's Witnesses refuse WHOLE blood and WHOLE blood components. Fractions are up to the person's conscience.
Doctors are stunned at our knowledge of our healthcare.
http://www.watchtower.org/e/medical_care_and_blood.htm
Look at the articles on why Witnesses don't accept blood.
Before you knock someone's belief, make sure you understand it.

Answer 5

I think you are confused about what the statement JW's are really saying.

I don't ever remember reading it the way you've phrased it.

The quote I'm familiar with is that more people die from taking blood, than those who die from refusing it.

I also know that what the real cause of death is masked on the death report.

My father had cancer, was weaken by the chemo, and 'died' from pneumonia per his death certificate and not the cancer.

How do we know how many have died from 'bad' blood and the death certificate reads something else?

Why do those have, the same surgeries, who receive blood spend two to three days longer in the hospital than those who don't?

Answer 6

JW's (like all religionists) don't base their beliefs on 'ideas' because religion doesn't work that way. An 'idea' is an assumption that can be proven or disproven. They work by 'belief' which means that if their leader tells them something is so, that concept is accepted without question.

Their belief that blood transfusions are bad has NOTHING to do with reality. It is a BELIEF, a RELIGIOUS belief, and as such, bears no reference to statistics, experience, history, or other rational measures.

Remember, Christians believe that everyone on Earth will go to hell (except their own faithful) when Jesus comes back. There is NOTHING in history or nature available to support this belief; it is simply what Christians are taught to accept. JW's also believe that only 144,000 people will be saved, and that the rest of humankind is doomed to eternal hellfire. There are NO statistics based on actual experience ANYWHERE that supports this addition to the already unsupported belief; yet they believe it anyway.

So you can argue about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin if you like, but it won't convince any of these people.

Religion is like that . . . .

Answer 7

Blood borne diseases are not the only negative effects that result from transfusions- infections are a large percentage of those deaths as well.

And blood expanders are most certainly not the sole alternative treatment available.

*nora and Alien God need to double check their info- we do not believe that Jesus is returning to San Francisco, and since we don't believe in the idea of hellfire I have no clue as to why a person would say that we condemn all of humanity, save 144,000, to hell. RESEARCH A RUMOR BEFORE ASSERTING IT AS A FACT PEOPLE!*

Answer 8

our ideals are bible based How many people have died for go to war because their ideals?

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!”

The only blood that the bible authorize to "use" is Jesus ´s blood.

Revelation 7:14 " So right away I said to him: “My lord, you are the one that knows.” And he said to me: “These are the ones that come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb"

Even in the womb of the woman the blood of his baby never mixes with her mother why God did that?

Answer 9

That's not true. Besides, it's not a fear of contaminated blood that keeps Jehovah's Witnesses from accepting blood transfusions. The reason is SCRIPTURAL. Acts 15:28, 29: “The holy spirit and we ourselves [the governing body of the Christian congregation] have favored adding no further burden to you, except these necessary things, to keep abstaining from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled [or, killed without draining their blood] and from fornication. If you carefully keep yourselves from these things, you will prosper. Good health to you!” (There the eating of blood is equated with idolatry and fornication, things that we should not want to engage in.)

Lev. 17:11, 12: “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. That is why I have said to the sons of Israel: ‘No soul of you must eat blood and no alien resident who is residing as an alien in your midst should eat blood.’” (All those animal sacrifices under the Mosaic Law foreshadowed the one sacrifice of Jesus Christ.)

So when the Bible says to abstain from blood, it means just that.

Answer 10

Man when u are brainwashed in a religion as theirs, where the founder belonged to a branch of secret society and can predict that Christ will return to a house in San Francisco and they still follow his teachings without question, anything can be told within those walls & i don't think that kind of hypnotism can be reversed.

Answer 11

I have no idea where they get their information. But i do know that the statistics can be manipulated so easily, depending on what their agenda is.
Not just JW"s mind you, but any group in general.

Bless Them All