i must comment on the blood issue.
i was raised a witness and have absolutely nothing to do with them anymore. becoming a mother almost 13 years ago helped put so much in perspective for me. this new perspective had started to take shape long before that though.
something that has been on my mind quite a bit recently, was when my friend, david was about 13, my oldest sons age now, he fell or slipped and was cut extremely bad on broken glass from a skylight. his parents refused any blood for him, he died within a very short time. how can someone allow their child to die? how could the so called society allow children to die? so ironic that the story we were told was very different than the truth. i found out the truth of this incident because years later i dated one of the EMT's who was there that day. he was only about 16 or 17 at the time, but it had a lasting impact on him.
several years ago my mother was in a horrific car accident, i was watching my mother die before me because she was holding on to the belief of no blood still, thankfully my father (non witness) and i changed her mind. she would have needlessly died.