Serious answers only!!! Are Jehovah Witnesses pro-life......?

Question

because if they are why don't they allow their underage children to decide if they want blood-transfusions or not...

I want only honest answers please...I have wondered this for sometime. There was a lady and her 3 years old that was telling me that they don't do blood transfusions because they say it says in the Bible not to "DRINK" blood.

How are transfusions, drinking blood?

Mabes : I asked her if she would allow her child to choose and she told me know. Contact me if you want....

Whoops I mean "no"

I didn't misunderstand what she said. Maybe what I should have said instead of "underage" was "age of accountablity".

Answer 1

It says in the Bible to 'abstain' from blood. (Acts 15:20) That would include drinking or transfusing it into your body. If a doctor told a person they had to stop drinking and said to 'abstain from alcohol' would it be ok to transfuse it directly into their veins? No! It's the same thing.
And as for letting thier children choose, most have! There have been examples of young teens who have gone to courts because their rights have been violated! Every person should have the right to choose for themselves what kind of medical treatment they prefer. And they shouldn't have to worry about others looking down on them for it.

Answer 2

By underage I imagine you mean under the age of eighteen. You assume that underage children have not made a conscious decision to refrain from taking blood transfusions. That is an inaccurate assumption. If you mean infants and toddlers, do you feel a three year old can make a proper decision about anything? As for our children, God has always commanded his worshipers to bring up their children in the mental-regulating of Jehovah. That includes Jehovah's commands respecting the handling of blood. This is what Witnesses try to do.

Jehovah's Christian Witnesses are pro God. They recognize God's right to determine what is acceptable behavior and what is not. They recognize and respect God's viewpoint when it comes to blood. And they also keep in mind the challenge brought by Satan at Job 2:4: "Skin for skin and all that a man has he will give in exchange for his soul." In other words, a man will do anything to save his own skin - even if it means disregarding the laws of God. Everybody's got a price. Sadly, many people today feel the same way. "Worshiping God is all well and good," they say, "but when my neck is on the line, it's all about me." That attitude dovetails quite nicely with the charge of Satan.

When your life is on the line, the last thing you want to do is snub God.

You may have misunderstood. Jehovah's Witnesses abstain from blood because of the very clear command at Acts 15:29. Is it reasonable to suggest that one can abstain from blood while at the same time take a blood transfusion?

Hannah J Paul

Answer 3

Short and to the point:

Acts 15:29 : continue abstaining from blood.

Note how it doesn't mention an exact way as laws do, but it states it as a principle, something that applies in more than one way.

If you are sick and cant eat, doctors can feed you through your veins, the same way they can introduce in your body different medicines.
The same way, blood if it is drank or eaten through mouth, it is the same as getting a blood transfusion. In both cases you are in troducing blood into your body.

Answer 4

Watchtower speak gives me the runs Look at the question, as with all of the cult questions in the watchtower there is only 1 way to answer, this is not a discussion on creation vs evolution it is a cult member using a cult document and mind control to impose on another persons powers of reason Wonder How the Witness would react if I said, Can you be harmed by a book? Can reading a verse or even a chapter of Information cause your God to shun you or even to hate you, and then give them a copy of Crisis of Conscience

Answer 5

Pro-life (in the sense of opposing abortion): Of course we are. Abortion is murder, because it is a life from the moment of conception (according to the scriptures).

Basically, God commanded that His servants recognize blood for hits holy value and therefore abstain from it. Once it leaves the body, it's gone. It isn't to be eaten, drunk, transfused or played with.

Generally speaking, if that's our religious belief, is it not wise to choose not to try to lengthen our relatively short lives a little longer and risk incurring his wrath? Is he not able to resurrect his faithful servants?

What 3-year-old you know has the capacity to make a valid decision about medical treatment?

Have you not heard about the many advances that have been made recently in bloodless surgery? (That wasn't meant to sound sarcastic btw.)

Answer 6

My children are all grown now, but I can tell you that a 3 year old is simply not capable of making decisions. As parents we are responsible for our children, it is an awesome responsibility before God. One we take very serious.

My brothers and sisters have all given you excellent answers to this question. I just want to reiterate that many non-witnesses now take advantage of 'blood-less' surgery, blood volume fillers, to pump up their own blood until their bodies make more, so as to avoid the many problems and life threatening infections that often do arise due to transfusions. Pioneered due to our stand against blood. People forget that since it's not YOUR blood, your body opts to reject it, just as if you were given another's organ. (those folks must take anti-rejection drugs for life).

Of course, our objection is because of the command laid down by God. Blood is blood, whether it's drank or supplied through a needle. Many of our dedicated young ones,[ under 18 who are baptized] make this stand on their own in court, and they win.

So, I hope you understand the issue clearer now.

Answer 7

The expression "under-age children" was not invented by JW's.
Its a legal term, by which, the authors of it meant the child needs direction.
The child is not permitted, by law, to decide for him, or herself.
In most cases, parents are the next best source.
JW's take that very seriously.
Your lady friend used the word 'drink'. Interesting.
She must be referring to the OT as per the KJV.
Acts 15:28,29 uses the term 'abstain'.
What would you expect a parent to do but act according to the knowledge they have researched?
BTW Bloodless surgery is becoming quite common.
Many non-JW's prefer it.
Many non-JW surgeons refuse blood for themselves.
The point of view of JW's re blood is not based on a whim.

Answer 8

Interestingly, both Jehovah's Witnesses AND more and more secular governments believe that so-called "mature minors" should be allowed to make educated decisions regarding their own medical care. Until now, not even vehement pro-blood activists or virulent anti-Witness critics have suggested that a three-year-old has the capacity to make such an informed choice.

So who should make such a decision for a three-year-old, regarding which medical alternative should be used?

It would seem that when parents give clear evidence of studiously working to protect and prolong their child's life and best interests, the parents should be given the deference and respect befitting any other serious family decision. Sadly, anti-Witness critics ignore two facts.

1. Many MULTIPLES more have died as a result of a blood transfusion than have died from a conscientious decision to pursue other medical treatments.

2. Medical technologies exist to treat literally every illness and injury without resorting to the old-fashioned infusion of whole blood, plasma, platelets, or red/white blood cells.

Why should government or a handful of doctors insist that *IT* should have the only right to choose a course of treatment, especially when responsible parents are simply and thoughtfully requesting a different course of treatment? A Jehovah's Witness may accept all minor blood fractions, so if there is some targeted need then a Witness will accept a targeted treatment (the only objections are to those four components which approximate actual blood).


It is not Jehovah's Witnesses who decide that blood is sacred. It is Almighty God who declares it so, as the Divine Author of the Holy Bible!

As God's spokesman and as Head of the Christian congregation, Jesus Christ made certain that the early congregation reiterated, recorded, and communicated renewed Christian restrictions against the misuse of blood.

Jehovah's Witnesses are not anti-medicine or anti-technology, and they do not have superstitious ideas about some immortal "soul" literally encapsulated in blood. Instead, as Christians, the Witnesses seek to obey the very plain language of the bible regarding blood.

As Christians, they are bound by the bible's words in "the Apostolic Decree". Ironically, this decree was the first official decision communicated to the various congregations by the twelve faithful apostles (and a handful of other "older men" which the apostles had chosen to add to the first century Christian governing body in Jerusalem). God and Christ apparently felt (and feel) that respect for blood is quite important.

Here is what the "Apostolic Decree" said, which few self-described Christians obey or even respect:

(Acts 15:20) Write them [the various Christian congregations] to abstain from things polluted by idols and from fornication and from what is strangled and from blood.

(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.


Quite explicitly, the Apostolic Decree plainly forbids the misuse of blood by Christians (despite the fact that nearly every other provision of former Jewish Mosaic Law was recognized as unnecessary). It seems odd therefore, that literally one Christian religion continues to teach that humans must not use blood for any purpose other than honoring Almighty God.

A better question would ask: How can other self-described Christian religions justify the fact that they don't even care if their adherents drink blood and eat blood products?


Jehovah's Witnesses recognize the repeated bible teaching that blood is specially "owned" by God, and must not be used for any human purpose. Witnesses do not have any superstitious aversion to testing or respectfully handling blood, and Witnesses believe these Scriptures apply to blood and the four primary components which approximate "blood". An individual Jehovah's Witness is likely to accept a targeted treatment for a targeted need, including a treatment which includes a minor fraction derived from plasma, platelets, and/or red/white blood cells.

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

Answer 9

I am not a jehova witness - they witness the wrong name and they admit it in their Diaglots - but; they have some truth mixed in and the teaching of no blood transfusions IS CORRECT. as an example - the guy right above my answer here ... is a "Jehovah" witness - BUT ...

Look at his username to the left of his answer ... and see that Hebrew writing??? It emphatically says, "YHWH" which is pronounced as Yahweh - the true name of our Creator ... and yet he is promoting sites to draw in others to use "Jehovah"?

No malice intended - just want all to see and hopefull the guy above will see as well? I find it rather hipocritical - but; the doctors also take a hipocritacle oath...

When scripture says that "the life is in the blood" ... it is not saying so much that it is the blood that keeps you alive - but; THERE IS LIFE FORMS IN THE BLOOD ...

Drinking the blood has a totally different effect/affect than taking it in undigested into your very own universe - your system into the blood veins directly; however, ... Drinking blood is a sin punishable by death and the death does come by the curses that drinking it brings ... it is automatic - not so much taking you out for a stoning - it comes automatically ... like thou shalt not pour sugar into your gas tank ... it is a death penalty for your car.

DNA was only first discovered like 20 years ago or so - give or take ... and there is life forms that are so small that we just do not have equipment to see them with yet ... when we do - it will scare the pants off ya.

You may take for granted and so does science - that the membrane around a single cell is just a membrane ... when we get equipment to actually see what that membrane is made of - it may be trillions of cells just like the cell itself that makes up that membrane that appears as a simple sack in microscopic form that we get from the grocers to carry our groceries home in.

And it may be that each of those cells to be discovered at a later date are such that would totally screw up our entire system ... our computer system that our bodies are - and make it malfunction and die. Do you have any anti-virus program on your home computer running at this time?

Why not just shut it off and plug in some soft ware you don't know where it came from or what is in it??? If you would not do this - why condemn someone from doing it with their bodies - their computer system that allows them to function in society ... just because you think they should without checking out or even caring what is being put in there and what the program from a different computer system may do to it? Sure ... they are both A+ ... but; what is in that A+ blood that is not acceptable to the recipient?

Is it a disease from fornication ... that the other body has been fighting and making anti-bodies that will attack the recipients body in more than one way now ... just because a doctor said it was alright? My brother died and was later sent a letter from the VA - a year after his death telling him he had got AIDS from several sources in his blood transfusions and he should prepaire to die ... he was blessed that he was aready dead, eh?

What new disease is there in it from him doing it with a duck to help create Asian Bird Flu that was created by a mixing of human and bird fluids ... is it a new bug not known yet and not screened for??? THERE ARE OVER 125 STD's out there today and they are mutating and creating new diseases every day - never seen before ...GODS NEWLY COME UP THAT YOUR FATHERS DID NOT WORSHIP!

We may not see them - but; our Creator ... the one who designed us ... told us they are there and each person's is unique and built to serve only that person (unless it is a married couple wherein the two become one ... it's a fact).

Every person's body frequency is different than the next person's ... and when a different frequency alone is dumped into a blood stream - it changes the whole body of the recipient and causes long term problems. Believe it or Don't ...

What doctors do not want you to know ... is that the young coconut - the juice of it, filtered - is almost exactly like human plasma. In WWII many G.I.'s were given this and it saved their lives ... but;

IT IS HARD TO CHARGE $3,500.00 FOR A PINT OF COCONUT MILK ... and with the plasma - it is pretty much guaranteed that the doctor will get return business from the recipients.

Personally - I would rather die than take someone elses sewage line fluids to put into my body that I have spent 20 years cleaning up. I have taken cleanses after cleanses ... and the blood is the dumping grounds for every organ and every cell - of it's waste products to be filtered out by the organs and eliminated.

After how many years of mad cow - now the scientists and doctors admit that the prion is IN THE BLOOD ... every disease is in the blood that a person has ...

Complain all you want about children not taking on the sexual sins and the unclean foods, diseases, waste products, cancers and/or etc. from others that are but walking dead ... so that the child can be plauged with those special gifts the rest of his/her life ...

Did you every wonder why the Messiah said, "LET THE DEAD - BURY THE DEAD" ... he wasn't talking of a skeleton jumping out the ground with a shovel ... he was saying that if they are not keeping the law and are not taking care of themsleves ... then THEY ARE DEAD WALKING AROUND ... Spiritually dead and looking for a place to drop physically dead from their sins and the curses they bring.

Hope this shed some light - you will see this in science comming out much more very soon.

It took years of the House of Yahweh preaching that when one takes a donor's organs - all that does is increase the life of the donor ... and the life of the recipient gets taken over by the donor's organs that were transplanted.

Took many years for science and doctors to finally admit - because of patients talking about it ... One biker dude that loved to party and ride ... got a kidney from some lady - perfect match ....

His buds got upset with him because when they wanted him to go party - he was too busy knitting and cooking ... or cleaning the house. He was taking on her personality and everything ... of course his wife said if she would have known this earlier ... she would have made him get one sooner.

You do not know what you are playing with when you speak out against not receiving such medical miracles that may not kill you instantly - but; could very well kill the spirit and the body ...

Hope this helped - I did not want to present the facts to confuse the issues ...

Peace;

Aintmyfault
..

Answer 10

First off they are pro life, it is against the church and considered morally wrong to abort. Blood is considered sacred to them, not just consuming blood is considered bad. They figure (i guess) that if god wants you to die you will and removing what is considered your essence to keep you alive is a sin. Though, there's a hospital in new york that does synthetic blood transfusions and is stamped with the JW seal of approval sorta speak. The name of the hospital evades me.