I am so sorry you have to have surgery. I hope it all goes very, very well for you. There is good advice here, especially Bob_NC's. If the hospital liaison committee comes to the hospital they WILL pressure your husband. Threats of disfellowshipping, etc. Make sure every single person involved with your surgery, like Bob said, knows how you feel and that there is potential for this pressure to happen.
Here is my Bible-based opinion that I recently posted on Yahoo Answers.
The blood issue is a very touchy subject for some - witnesses and non-witnesses alike. Considering the several thousand deaths resulting from this doctrine, I can’t possibly imagine why. Especially when the teaching changes and parts of blood are allowed after so long, and after so many deaths…all because of misinterpretation of scripture that states to “abstain from blood”.
Consider the account of Saul and his army in 1 Samuel 14. These people were faint, very faint. They were starving to death. So what did they do? They slaughtered animals on the ground and ate them WITH the blood. Saul griped at them for it, but ultimately, were they put to death for it? Did they die for eating blood because they were just trying to survive and not starve to death? No. Breaking the Sabbath was punishable by death. Consider what Jesus said about breaking the Sabbath. If your animal falls in a pit on a Sabbath, are you not going to pull it out to safety? Jesus said it was fine to break the Sabbath in order to save life, even just an animal. Those in Saul’s time died for breaking the Sabbath but not for eating the animals with the blood. Jesus corrected this kind of thinking. Preserving life, in a life or death situation is acceptable, even if it means breaking a guideline. Accepting blood in that type of situation should be a personal choice made on your own, within your own conscience. NOT absolutely enforced with an iron hand by a religion and bullying by a hospital liaison committee. What do the “abstain from blood” scriptures really mean, then? Surely not transfusions in the first century. It is mentioned alongside worshipping idols. A lot of idol worshippers in that time period had a practice of drinking blood in their worship. I think this kind of abstaining from blood, and what they were talking about, is much more likely than taking a blood transfusion.
So anyway...this is how I feel. It is a personal choice. It should NOT be legal for that committee to even come into the room. They don't come to give encouragement as they say if they feel you're "weak" and may decide to take blood. They come to bully. They have no right to try to force you into something because their beloved doctrine says so. It is so, so wrong. The only part they're right about, in my opinion, is that there are risks to taking blood. But, there are also risks in having surgery in the first place. There are risks when you walk out your front door. Taking blood should always be your own choice, period.
