Can Jehovah's Witnesses be hooked up to a heart bypass machine?

Question

This was someone elses question, but there were only 2 answers, and none of those answered the question.

I hope you dont mind if i re ask?

Is there in the bible where you can take blood out of your body with a tube and put it back? But you can not take your blood out of your body and put it in a bag and save it and put it back? This does not make any sense!

Answer 1

LOL...I love this question! Tell me on what planet, does the blood taken out of they body, that is run through a machine not TRANSFUSE back into the body.


Let me get this straight: No blood transfusion.
Bypass and transfusion is OK.....right......

Laura..this does not make any sense to anybody. You are right for asking this question. Keep asking good questions...

Answer 2

7 solutions and now not one JW abusing you, this need to be a few style of list. 7 solutions and now not one JW reply, for the reason that in actual fact too transparent to argue towards. There isn't any method that their knowledge on blood might replicate using middle skip machines or dialysis machines being authorised by means of God but the transitority garage in their blood isn't. No surprise in addition they forget about Christ, "Drink my blood or don't have any existence in you." I surprise what's incorrect with His flesh that they decline that as good?

Answer 3

Many Witnesses permit the use of dialysis and heart-lung equipment (non-blood-prime) as well as intraoperative salvage where the extracorporeal circulation is uninterrupted; the physician should consult with the individual patient as to what his conscience dictates. Witnesses believe that blood removed from the body should be disposed of, so they do not accept autotransfusion of predeposited blood. Techniques for intraoperative collection or hemodilution that involve blood storage are objectionable to them.

Answer 4

Jehovah’s Witnesses do not accept transfusions of whole blood or the four primary components of blood—namely, red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, and plasma. They also do not donate or store their own blood for transfusion.—Lev. 17:13, 14; Acts 15:28, 29. Beyond that, there are plasma expanders, blood fractions and temporary blood storage and cleaning that are personal matters and the use of any of these are up to the conscience of the patient. Jehovah's Witnesses are encouraged to indicate their personal choices regarding these treatments in a document known as POWER OF ATTORNEY FOR HEALTH CARE.

One of the benefits of refusing blood transfusions by Jehovah's Witnesses has been that more doctors are practicing bloodless surgery which as you can imagine calls for a higher degree of expertise in the field of surgery. With the risk of contaminated blood ever present, bloodless surgery could be a decision for you too.

Answer 5

Yes, many or most Jehovah's Witnesses would permit a so-called "heart bypass machine" to be used as an extension of their own circulatory system, as long as the device was not "primed" with 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.

Jesus Christ, as God's spokesman and as Head of the Christian congregation, made certain that the early congregation reiterated, recorded, and communicated renewed Christian restrictions against the misuse of blood (it would hardly have been necessary to remind Christians to abstain from murderous bloodguilt).

It would seem that all conscientious Christians would feel 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 [the meat of which would contain blood] 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 [the meat of which would contain blood] 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/e/vcnb/article_01.htm

Answer 6

of course. a friend of my family had a triple bypass this year without blood and is doing great. we get the best care we can, even if doctors are always making mistakes

Answer 7

It makes as much sense as the rest of their beliefs. People are such fools for religion.

Answer 8

it is not disconnected from the body lamby.
so it it continually flowing.

Answer 9

In the light of Bible commands about the proper use of blood, Jehovah’s Witnesses view medical procedures using one’s own blood, as follows:

Rather than deciding solely on the basis of personal preference or some medical recommendation, each Christian ought to consider seriously what the Bible says. It is a matter between him and Jehovah.

Jehovah, to whom we owe our lives, decreed that blood should not be consumed. (Genesis 9:3, 4) In the Law for ancient Israel, God limited the use of blood because it represents life. He decreed: “The soul or life of the flesh is in the blood, and I myself have put it upon the altar for you to make atonement for your souls.” What if a man killed an animal for food? God said: “He must in that case pour its blood out and cover it with dust.” (Leviticus 17:11, 13.) Jehovah repeated this command again and again. (Deuteronomy 12:16, 24; 15:23.) "The Jewish Soncino Chumash" notes: “The blood must not be stored but rendered unfit for consumption by pouring it on the ground.” No Israelite was to appropriate, store, and use the blood of another creature, whose life belonged to God.

God’s view of the sacredness of blood remains. The apostles directed Christians to ‘abstain from blood.’ That command was not to be taken lightly. It was as important morally as abstaining from sexual immorality or idolatry. (Acts 15:28, 29; 21:25) When donating and transfusing blood became common, Jehovah’s Witnesses understood that this practice conflicted with God’s Word.

Occasionally, a doctor will urge a patient to deposit his own blood weeks before surgery (preoperative autologous blood donation, or PAD) so that if the need arises, he could transfuse the patient with his own stored blood. However, such collecting, storing, and transfusing of blood directly contradicts what is said in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Blood is not to be stored; it is to be poured out—returned to God, as it were. Granted, the Mosaic Law is not in force now. Nevertheless, Jehovah’s Witnesses respect the principles God included in it, and they are determined to ‘abstain from blood.’ Hence, we do not donate blood, nor do we store for transfusion our blood that should be ‘poured out.’ That practice conflicts with God’s law.

Other procedures or tests involving an individual’s own blood are not so clearly in conflict with God’s stated principles. For instance, many Christians have allowed some of their blood to be withdrawn for testing or analysis, after which the sample is discarded. Other more complex procedures involving one’s blood may also be recommended.

For example, during certain surgical procedures, some blood may be diverted from the body in a process called hemodilution. The blood remaining in the patient is diluted. Later, his blood in the external circuit is directed back into him, thus bringing his blood count closer to normal. Similarly, blood that flows into a wound may be captured and filtered so that the red cells can be returned to the patient; this is called cell salvage. In a different process, blood may be directed to a machine that temporarily carries on a function normally handled by body organs (for example, the heart, lungs, or kidneys). The blood from the machine is then returned to the patient. In other procedures, blood is diverted to a separator (centrifuge) so that damaging or defective portions of it can be eliminated. Or the goal may be to isolate some of a blood component and apply that elsewhere on the body. There are also tests in which 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.

The details may vary, and new procedures, treatments, and tests will certainly be developed. It is not our place to analyze each variation and render a decision. A Christian must decide for himself how his own blood will be handled in the course of a surgical procedure, medical test, or current therapy. Ahead of time, he should obtain from the doctor or technician the facts about what might be done with his blood during the procedure. Then he must decide according to what his conscience permits.

Christians should bear in mind their dedication to God and obligation ‘to love him with their whole heart, whole soul, whole strength, and whole mind.’ (Luke 10:27) Unlike most in the world, Jehovah’s Witnesses highly treasure their good relationship with God. The Life-Giver urges all to trust in Jesus’ shed blood. We read: “By means of him (Jesus Christ) we have the release by ransom through the blood of that one, yes, the forgiveness of our trespasses.”—Ephesians 1:7.

Professor Frank H. Gorman writes: “The pouring out of the blood is best understood as an act of reverence that demonstrates respect for the life of the animal and, thus, respect for God, who created and continues to care for that life.”

Many types of surgery can be performed successfully without blood transfusions. This includes open-heart operations, brain surgery, amputation of limbs, and total removal of cancerous organs. Writing in the 'New York State Journal of Medicine' (October 15, 1972, p. 2527), Dr. Philip Roen said: “We have not hesitated to perform any and all indicated surgical procedures in the face of proscribed blood replacement.” Dr. Denton Cooley, at the Texas Heart Institute, said: “We became so impressed with the results [from using nonblood plasma expanders] on the Jehovah’s Witnesses that we started using the procedure on all our heart patients.” (T"he San Diego Union", December 27, 1970, p. A-10) “‘Bloodless’ open-heart surgery, originally developed for adult members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses sect because their religion forbids blood transfusions, now has been safely adapted for use in delicate cardiac procedures in infants and children.”—Cardiovascular News, February 1984, p. 5.

"Jehovah’s Witnesses Instrumental in Heart Surgery Advance"

THE 'New York Daily News' of August 27, 1995, headlined their report, “The Bloodless Operation.” It stated that the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center was “to reveal a revolutionary way to perform coronary bypass surgery—the same surgery recently required by ex-Mayor David Dinkins—without losing so much as a drop of blood.”

“Inspired by the concerns of Jehovah’s Witnesses,” the paper said, “the wonder of the new procedure . . . will be reflected in hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings for hospitals and substantially less risk of blood contamination for patients.” Dr. Todd Rosengart, director of the hospital’s bloodless surgery program, said: “We are now able to reduce the amount of blood transfusion necessary during this surgery from the usual two to four units per patient to zero.”

Dr. Karl Krieger, a cardiac surgeon of the hospital, who helped pioneer the procedure, said: “By eliminating the need for donor blood and blood products, we also reduce the risk of certain postoperative fevers and infections normally associated with transfusions.”

Other experts say that “the bloodless bypass decreases time spent in intensive care after surgery—from 24 hours or more to just six hours. Patients in clinical trials were able to get back on their feet and out of the hospital up to 48 hours sooner.” That means big savings for hospitals, government, and insurance companies. Dr. Rosengart estimated that “this surgery can save at least $1,600 per patient.”

'The Daily News' account continued:

“Ironically, the new surgery was instigated not by economic or even medical urgency, but by religious fervor. The Jehovah’s Witnesses community—whose beliefs forbid the use of transfusions—was seeking help for elder members succumbing to heart disease. . . .

“At the urging of the Jehovah’s Witnesses community, the doctors combined their blood salvaging techniques with the new drugs. They also found a new way of utilizing the traditional heart and lung machine used to keep patients alive during cardiac surgery.

“In addition to the 40 Jehovah’s Witnesses patients comprising the initial clinical study, six months ago the New York-Cornell team introduced the operation into the general patient community. ‘Since then, they have completed 100 consecutive bloodless bypass surgeries with no deaths,’ said Krieger. The mortality rate for normal bypass surgery is about 2.3%.”
Worldwide 102 hospitals have added bloodless surgery programs to their facilities, making these safer surgical procedures available to the general patient community earth wide.

The Bible’s prohibition includes human blood. Yes, and early Christians understood it that way. Acts 15:29 says to “keep abstaining from . . . blood.” It does not say merely to abstain from animal blood. ( Compare Leviticus 17:10, which prohibited eating “any sort of blood.”) Tertullian (who wrote in defense of the beliefs of early Christians) stated: “The interdict upon ‘blood’ we shall understand to be (an interdict) much more upon human blood.”—"The Ante-Nicene Fathers", Vol. IV, p. 86.

If you would like further information, please contact Jehovah's Witnesses at the local Kingdom Hall. Or visit

Answer 10

The Bible doesn't specifically tell us the procedure of blood transfusion. It is not a medical book and blood transfusion is not practiced yet in the early Christian times. It also doesn't say that you can or allowed to take your blood outside your body and put it back in again after it left the body. What we have are Bible principles and the general instruction to "abstain from blood" Acts 15:29.

JWs believe in the Bible as the word of God and it is for everyone's lasting benefit to follow it. We follow the Bible's command to abstain from blood as stated in Acts 15:29. Eventhough we do not accept transfusion of blood, we accept other ALTERNATIVES to blood transfusion. We believe that putting any sort of blood in our body is a serious sin that we can loose our chance of the life promised by God and Jesus.
The Israelites, who ate blood, was cut off from God's people. See Lev 17:10.

Acts 15:20 - but to write them to abstain from things polluted by idols and from fornication and from what is strangled and from blood.
Acts 15:29 - to keep abstaining from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication

When did the practice of blood transfusion started? According to wikipedia.org that it started "The first historical attempt at blood transfusion was described by the 15th-century chronicler Stefano Infessura". So do you expect the Bible to explicitly speak against medical transfusion of blood during the 1st century when during that time it wasn’t practiced? Or have you ever thought that just quoting a GENERAL instruction, i.e., to “ABSTAIN from Blood” will suffice. How come in the Hebrew Scriptures it always state a SPECIFIC instruction to “do not EAT blood” but when it comes to the Greek Scriptures, it becomes a GENERAL instruction “abstain from blood” and NOT “abstain from eating/drinking blood”?

The question then is, when Acts 15 states “abstain from blood” is it only for eating and drinking blood? At that time, early Christians, understood that “abstaining from blood” means not eating and drinking it because blood transfusion is not being practiced. If it was being practiced at that time, the instruction in Acts 15 did not EXCLUDE "blood transfusion". The early Christians also understood that they won’t use blood for medical reasons, that’s why they didn’t use blood to cure epilepsy.

The point there is “eating and drinking blood” means the blood goes IN to your body. So what the Bible says is that we abstain from blood going IN our body. This means that you can use blood for testing, clean it, etc.

If you are allergic to nuts, the doctor will only say, “abstain from nuts”, that covers everything, that is, nothing to be taken orally and to be transfused. If you have allergies to nuts, you’ll understand. You don’t force your allergic kid to accept nuts , do you?

Have you ever wondered why in Rev 2:14, , Jesus has something AGAINST Pergamum, i.e., to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit fornication, which reflects the original instructions in Acts 15:29?. Also, Jesus has something AGAINST some in Thyatira because Jezebel misleads Jesus’ slaves to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed to idols (From the original instruction in Acts 15:20, 29)? Many years have passed when the Apostle John wrote Revelation but the instruction from Acts 15:20,29 is still in effect. So you think, the instructions in Acts 15:29 are only temporary? And notice that the instructions given in Rev 2 are not only for Gentiles but to all Christians, even Jewish Christians.

The early Christians ate meat which are properly bled, but eventhough 100% of the blood wasn’t removed, they were still considered abstaining from blood.

Lev 17:10 states “‘As for any man of the house of Israel or some alien resident who is residing as an alien in YOUR midst who eats any sort of blood”

Notice ANY SORT OF BLOOD, so no faithful follower of God, eats blood of any sorts, animal or human. That’s why humans cannot drink or eat animal or human blood.

The prohibition for blood is repeated in Acts 15:28-29 but instead of just saying do not EAT blood, Acts 15 changed it to ABSTAIN FROM BLOOD, which is a general term to encompass not only eating, drinking of any sort of blood but the future use of blood in the body, which includes transfusion.

Notice too that the Bible doesn’t say abstain from nuclear bombs nor abstain from cannibalism, but the underlying principles found in the Bible can help us determine that we have to abstain from those things.

Is a subcomponent/fraction of the main components of blood, considered blood? In the case of an egg, is an egg white, egg yolk, still an egg? Is the subcomponent of an egg white, still an egg? Is oxygen, a subcomponent of water, water still? The same with blood, is one of the subcomponents of a main component still considered blood? Some will say yes, some will say no. This a personal decision we have to answer to God.

If YOU carefully keep yourselves from these things, YOU will prosper. Good health to YOU!. Acts 15:29 Please notice YOU WILL PROSPER, GOOD HEALTH TO YOU. (The word health here is all encompassing, not only limited to spiritual or physical health, otherwise it should have said Good spiritual or physical health to you.) Have you not wondered why Acts 15:29 EXPLICITLY stated those two reasons as why the Gentile reasons should abstain from blood and NOT the reason of maintaining peaceful relations with the Jews or other reasons?

For example, a few weeks back, a news reported:

“It doesn't matter how much oxygen is being carried by red blood cells, it cannot get to the tissues that need it without nitric oxide," said Dr. Jonathan Stamler of Duke University, leader of one of the research groups.

Blood vessels relax and constrict to regulate blood flow and nitric oxide opens up blood vessels, allowing red blood cells to deliver oxygen, he explained.

"If the blood vessels cannot open, the red blood cells back up in the vessel and tissues go without oxygen. The result can be a heart attack or even death," he said.”

So without nitric oxide, blood cannot help supply back oxygen to the body. So to say that blood transfusion will save the woman’s life is not totally true.

There are some alternatives to blood, that each individual JWs can use depending upon their conscience.

So basically, if a JW lost a lot of blood, we would like to have the volume expanders and other nonblood products or practices that help replace the lost oxygen. Please see www.noblood.org

Other doctors though are recognizing the alternatives to blood transfusion. Please see this website.

http://www.englewoodhospital.com/medservices.cfm?pageid=40


The instruction in Acts 15:29 is not only limited for eating animal blood. Why? Do you know of any faithful follower of God who drank and ate HUMAN blood? Do you know of any God’s faithful followers who DRANK or ATE blood from LIVING animals or humans?
So the abstention of blood is for both animals and humans alike. People also die,i.e. loses LIFE, because of blood transfusion (AIDS, wrong blood types, etc).

Some misapplied Mark 5:25-34. … might on occasion have needs that would justify the breaking of these laws …

Answer : Making an implication that it is okay to disobey Gods law when life is involved or if you are in serious health is wrong. Question for you, is it okay to worship Satan if you know that someone will kill you if you don’t? Notice that the woman showed great faith in Jesus. Aside from that, the Mosaic Law is going to end very soon so Jesus has showed compassion, and notice the woman trembled and got frightened, showing repentance and told Jesus the WHOLE truth. Definitely Jesus forgave her because the woman got healed. Today, most people who had blood transfusions do not show any signs of trembling and repentance eventhough the Bible clearly stated to abstain from blood. So remember obedience is better than sacrifice.



If someone died because of wrong blood type transfused OR got AIDS and died because of blood transfusion, who will be accounted for the cause of death? The one who transfused the blood, the who one gave his blood or the one who accepted it?

Early Christians died and were thrown in the lion’s den and killed because of their faith. Some have seen even their own love ones died , their children, husband, wife, relatives, and other kins because of having faith in Jesus. Were they wrong to choose death because of their Christian faith? Were they wrong to die because they chose not to show even a little sign of worship to the Roman emperor or eat blood sausage?