What's wrong in refusing a blood transfusion if you supposedly really "need" it?

Question

So in asking an honest question here are a few articles and a video to help everyone understand why Jehovah's Witnesses refuse blood transfusions and giving blood. I myself am a Witness.

How Can Blood Save Your Life?
http://www.watchtower.org/e/hb/index.htm?article=article_03.htm

How Can Blood Save Your Life?
http://www.watchtower.org/e/hb/index.htm?article=article_03.htm
Quality Alternatives to Transfusion

How Can Blood Save Your Life? - A P P E N D I X
http://www.watchtower.org/e/hb/index.htm?article=article_03.htm
JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES THE SURGICAL/ETHICAL CHALLENGE

BLOOD: WHOSE CHOICE AND WHOSE CONSCIENCE?
by J. Lowell Dixon, M.D.
http://www.watchtower.org/e/hb/index.htm?article=article_03.htm

No Blood—Medicine Meets the Challenge
http://www.watchtower.org/e/vcnb/article_01.htm

Why risk your life to have "life saving blood" to save your life? Many die from just having a transfusion, not from refusing it. And If it ever came down to where choosing blood or refusing blood I would rather refuse blood because I would be obeying God's command in abstaining from blood. Even if I did die from not having a transfusion I know I will be resurrected in the new system. Also saying no to a transfusion is a conscious weighing matter. Would refusing blood make Jehovah happy or would it make him unhappy when receiveing blood? That is the question you should be asking yourselves! But here's the answer it makes Jehovah happy when you obey his command!

Reasoning from the Scriptures
Blood
Blood Transfusions
Does the Bible's prohibition include 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 indirect upon 'blood' we shall understand to be (an interdict) much more upon human blood."-----The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. IV, p. 86.

(Continued from the Reasoning from the Scriptures book)

Is a transfusion really the same as eating blood?
In a hospital, when a patient cannot eat through his mouth, he is fed intravenously. Now, would a person who never put blood into his mouth but who accepted blood by transfusion really be obeying the Command to "Keep abstaining from.....blood"? (Acts 15:29) To use a comparison, consider a man who is told by the doctor that he must abstain from alcohol. Would he be obedient if he quit drinking alcohol but had it put directly into his veins?

2007 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses
published 2007
Latvia
Christian Faith put to the test
The Blood issue has also tested the integrity of some. On September 6, 1996, Yelena Godlevskaya, a 17 year old girl who was hit by a car, suffered multiple fractures to the pelvis. Spiritually mature, Yelena had determined in her heart to abstain from blood. (Acts 15:29) Back then, most doctors in Latvia were unfamiliar with nonblood techniques, so the attending doctors refused to preform corrective surgery. Then about a week later, two doctors cruelly forced a blood transfusion on Yelena late one night, and she died.

He just fell asleep in death and when Jehovah resurrects the dead he too will be resurrected for obeying Jehovah's command from abstaining from blood and obeying him rather than man.

To use a comparison, consider a man who is told by the doctor that he must abstain from alcohol. Would he be obedient if he quit drinking alcohol but had it put directly into his veins?

Well if I died for not having a transfusion I know I will be resurrected into the new system for obeying Jehovah's command. Its a conscious weighing matter and I love the provision that Jehovah put forth for us to learn and obey from him.

Thank you Purple Triangle and Lover of Jehovah and Jesus for chiming in! :)

Bloodless Surgery
http://www.watchtower.org/e/19980822/article_01.htm
Its Benefits Gain Recognition

Jehovahs witnessess -DO not just watch their kids die!?
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ak7nHcyFuFdhnalyhykrrsLty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20071105085431AAq9Es3&show=7#profile-info-1RKJdBVjaa

Very well put Sugarbee! Thanks Sisters for putting in your two-bits. Yes its definitley a hot debate topic.

Answer 1

What a great question! I would never accept a blood transfusion simply from the fact that it is against Gods law, and from the other reasons stated here too. This is what I have understood from the bible for many years even though it was not something the Lutheran church taught. There have been 2 times in my life where I have refused blood. 1989 - ectopic pregnancy w/internal hemorrhaging, ( I was not a witness back then ) and 2005 - heart cath. - blood loss from femoral artery when clot broke loose... The Dr.'s thought I was nuts. There ARE alternatives and they work just as good or better and faster without the complications & breaking Jehovah's law. I'm still here. Just to add to the list of blood builders, cranberry juice is also VERY helpful.

Answer 2

This issue will always touch nerves...

but thankfully, many who are NOT Jehovah's Witnesses are starting to realize that NO BLOOD transfusion is the safer way to go and a lot less risk involved. Thousands of doctors today prefers "no blood transfusion" and I humbly applaud doctors who can save lives without the use of blood. They know now through seminars on NO BLOOD Transfusions that there are other alternatives--- yes, it is a challenge but it is a challenge in medicine they are willing to take because it is not only JWs that are not acceptiong blood...they are others as well.

Answer 3

Blood is very sacred to God. Wasn't it the pouring out of Jesus blood that we have forgiveness of sins? (Eph. 1:7; Heb. 9:22; 1 John 1:7) Are we not showing disrespect for Jesus life blood, if we do not treat blood as sacred?

Blood is not to be used and re-used. Once it leaves the body it is to be disposed of. (Lev. 17:11-13)

As Acts 15: 29 states "keep abstaining from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from fornication. If you carefully keep yourselves from these things, you will prosper. Good health to you!"

It is a question of is our life more important than obeying God's laws? Do we not have faith that if we should die, that he will not remember us and resurrect us?

Every human has the right to refuse certain medical treatment, even if Doctors advise against it. If someone has cancer, they can refuse chemotherapy, the Doctors will advise them that they could die without it, but it is still their choice, it is their body, and they have the right to say what will go into their body, whether it is taken from the mouth or given threw the veins.

Answer 4

This topic is gonna be a "hot debate"
BLOOD TRANSFUSIONS do not save lives!
My grandmothers 2nd husband had one and it KILLED him!

There are alternatives to blood......hespan, dextran, ringers lactate, just to name a few. I've had surgeries and refused blood, and guess what? I'm here! and I thank God....the One who I put my trust in.

p.s and for the little boy who died in Seattle......that was the doctors fault, because I guarantee that the parents sought out every possible alternative to save their child's life. A lot of people believe that JW's just stand around and watch and wait for their loved ones to die.....that is the farthest thing from the truth! Doctors are not GOD, but a lot of them think they are........I blame the doctors for not caring enough to work with the parents.

Answer 5

Because there are complications,People are finding out about and dying from that than the transfusion itself.People who aren't witnesses are going this way also.We have new medical DVD out that we are taught how to be bloodless safely.And we are the only ones that will know and be able to teach everyone.

Answer 6

God's prohibition on eating blood was no mere "dietary rule."

That is evident from the fact that in the 11th chapter of Leviticus where God set out numerous dietary regulations as to which animals could and could not be eaten, blood is not even mentioned in that context. Instead, God's law against eating blood is mentioned in the 17th chapter of Leviticus in connection with animal sacrifices.

Furthermore, if an Israelite violated the law by eating or touching an animal, fish, or bird that was considered unclean under the law, they were simply considered unclean themselves until evening. Not so the person who ate blood. They were not merely considered ceremonially unclean until evening—they were to be put to death. God outlawed the eating of blood, not because it was unclean in his eyes, as were certain types of animals, but because blood is holy to Jehovah.

Also, it was indicated to Peter in a vision that God had cleansed what was formally considered to be unclean. So, Peter and the apostles knew that God no longer was imposing the dietary restrictions of the Mosaic Law upon the Christian congregation.

But in that knowledge, the apostolic decree stated that abstaining from blood was one of the "necessary things" that was still binding upon Christians, even though the numerous dietary restrictions of the Law of Moses were not.

So, to imply that God's law on blood was and is a mere dietary law is wrong.

As for the example Jesus set, we would do well to remember that while Jesus condemned the merciless legalism of the Pharisees, he never compromised God's law. Jesus taught us that obeying God is more important than life itself.

The Son of God laid down the principle that the individual that seeks to save his soul (presumably by compromising their faith) will lose it, but he that loses his soul, for Christ's sake, will gain it. Jesus practiced what he preached, as he gave his very life to comply with God's Will.

Answer 7

While it is a tragedy this young man may die, It would be an even bigger one if he tried to hold onto life in satan's system of things for a short while longer and compromise his beliefs. Jesus died for all that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised up. If that which you have heard from the beginning remains in you, you will also abide in union with the Son and in union with the Father. Furthermore, this is the promised thing that he himself promised us, the life everlasting. In everything and in all circumstances I have learned the secret of both how to be full and how to hunger, both how to have an abundance and how to suffer want. For all things I have the strength by virtue of him who imparts power to me. For he has said: “I will by no means leave you nor by any means forsake you, and the One seated on the throne will spread his tent over you. Amen.

Answer 8

There are 306 Commandments that Moses was given. And keeping the blood out was/is one of them. Science in wanting to help people found away to to ID blood types and hopefully get the correct blood in the person. But mistakes can still happen. The question is with today's science do you want to take the risk?
Back 100-200 years ago they thought if they drained blood from people it would make them well again. It dose not.

Answer 9

1. The theological basis of the argument is unsound... The blood spoken of in scripture is clearly DIETARY. The prohibition is on EATING it.
2. The mention in Acts 15:29 is part of the ONE PASSAGE where parts from the law are bound on Gentile Christians. We see elsewhere in the New Testament from Jesus, Paul and others that the WHOLE LAW was set aside, including the dietary laws.

Since the only justification from scripture is an extension of dietary laws which were in fact set aside, the weight which should be placed on them is certainly subject to debate.

Acts 15:28 It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to give you a load that is too heavy. So here are a few basic rules. 29 Don’t eat food that has been offered to statues of gods. Don’t drink blood. Don’t eat the meat of animals that have been choked to death. And don’t commit sexual sins.
YOU WILL DO WELL TO KEEP AWAY FROM THESE THINGS...

Notice it DOES NOT SAY "YOU MUST..." JUST "YOU WILL DO WELL..."

Paul writes in 1Corinthians 10:25 "Eat ANYTHING that is sold in the meat market. Don’t ask if it’s right or wrong..." This obviously includes:
foods which have been sacrificed to idols
meat from animals which were strangled
blood

Paul's context for the statement in 1Cor. explains that we should not seek to impose our beliefs on someone else's diet... Here I pick up Paul's text again in verse 29, "... Why should my freedom be judged by what someone else thinks? 30 Suppose I give thanks when I eat. Then why should I be blamed for eating food I thank God for?"
''...causing a brother to stumble" from this context is often improperly interpreted and applied.

Answer 10

we rather trust Jehovah God and Jesus Christ with our life then any doctor who is always making mistakes. who would know us better, the doctors or Jehovah God. of course we hate to see a child die or anyone for that matter die. I lost my husband because they had my husband sign a paper while he was high on morphine and gave him blood and three weeks later he was gone. yes he was a Jehovah Witness. but I know I will see him again in the new system. I believe in the resurrection