if i ever needed a blood transfusion would i have a right as a minor to choose a blood transfusion
AS A 16 YEAR OLD am i able to choose to have a blood transfusion
by Lotus65 16 Replies latest watchtower medical
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jeanV
at 16 I am sure yes, in any democratic country in the world.
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Lotus65
I was wondering if there is anything scripturally wrong with blood transfusions. I mean does the WTS have a good reason for there stance on blood or is it all BS.
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Bob Loblaw
Yet if you are unconscious and your family are JW's they could make that decision for you. You might want to carry a card in your wallet that says I ACCEPT BLOOD TRANSFUSIONS.
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aniron
Check out this website on JW's and blood
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jeanV
imo the scriptural basis given is not valid, but if you are a jw and take a transfusion (and it becomes known) you automatically disassociate yourself.
I wrote "it becomes known", bcs I am aware of doctors that offer the option to JW's to take blood guaranteeing that they won't reveal to anyone.
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AudeSapere
This was a great suggestion: www.ajwrb.org
Additionally, you may want to talk to your doctor privately after reviewing that website.
I suppose that you could tell your doctor(s) in front of your parents, but only you know what that effect that might have the parents. I would imagine that if you told your doctor, he would be swift about taking a stand - legal, if necessary - to assist you. Just my guess.
Also, as someone already stated, if you are unconscious, your parents will make decisions based on their own (or the HLC) feelings.
It's usually better to spell some of these things out before a problem arises. Your doctor should be able to help you.
-Aude.
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Arthur
Let's see now:
Blood is sacred to Jehovah because it represents life; right? So, if a JW's child needs a blood transfusion, the parent logically must refuse it. If the child dies without the transfusion, Jehovah is pleased with the parent's faithfulness. Why? Because even though the child lost their life, they still did not get transfused with blood which is sacred due to it's representing life. The child's life has been sacraficed, but at least the blood which represents life hasn't been put into their body. For this, Jehovah is pleased.
Talk about a doctrinal Rubik's Cube!
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jwfacts
I don't know the age of consent for blood specifically and it probably varies from country to country, but I imagine it is 16. Since doctors desparately want to save lives, if as a 15 year old you told them that you want a transfusion I am sure they would do what they could to get a court order to that affect.
On the surface the JWs may appear to be correct about Blood because Acts says to "abstain from blood." However the Watchtower reasoning is very shallow and contradictory and it does not take long to work out blood transfusions are not unchristian. If this really means not to have a transfusion then why were JWs allowed to eat blood and have transfusions for many decades? There is an article looking into it at http://www.jwfacts.com/index_files/blooddoctrine.htm
Some important points are;
Inconsistent - The Watchtower states God’s standard is that blood must not be stored, yet Jehovah’s Witnesses can use fractionated blood derived from stored blood.
Hypocritical - Jehovah’s Witnesses use significant quantities of medical products derived from blood, but are forbidden from donating to the blood supply.
It is also important to distinguish between eating blood and blood transfusions. Jews can not eat blood but can have a transfusion. A blood transfusion is not the same as eating blood. For one, blood transfusions do not involve digesting blood. Secondly, the command given to Noah at Genesis 9:4 was that the blood was to be poured out of a slaughtered animal. Blood transfusions do not result in the death of the donor.
It is pertinent to note that Jew’s are allowed to have blood transfusions. (Likewise, Muslims are forbidden to drink blood but allowed transfusions as a life saving procedure.) Strict Orthodox Jews go as far as to soak meat in water, then salt it, then drain it, in order to draw out all the blood. Yet no Jewish groups forbid blood transfusions.
There are several reasons for this. Most importantly is that Jewish kosher probation's are waived in regards to life saving medical use. Christians should follow this same line of reasoning. Jesus used David as an example to show that that acts of mercy, such as saving a life, are more important than the strict adherence of regulation.
Watchtower 1952 September 15 p.575
“Matthew 12:1-4, NW: “At that season Jesus went through the grainfields on the sabbath. His disciples got hungry and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. At seeing this the Pharisees said to him: ‘Look! your disciples are doing what it is not lawful to do on the sabbath.’ He said to them: ‘Have you not read what David did when he and the men with him got hungry? How he entered into the house of God and they ate the loaves of presentation, food it was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those with him, but for the priests only?’” In these verses and in the ones following Jesus was calling attention to acts of mercy on the sabbath day, that it was perfectly legitimate to render a show of mercy to one who is in need even though it was the sabbath, and that there is, in effect, no violation of the sabbath by such course of action. He had no rebuke for David’s course.”A similar situation at is described at Luke 6:7-10
“The scribes and the Pharisees were now watching him closely to see whether he would cure on the sabbath, in order to find some way to accuse him. 8 He, however, knew their reasonings, yet he said to the man with the withered hand: “Get up and stand in the center.” And he rose and took his stand. 9 Then Jesus said to them: “I ask YOU men, Is it lawful on the sabbath to do good or to do injury, to save or to destroy a soul?” 10 And after looking around at them all, he said to the man: “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was restored.”It both these situations Jesus invoked the rabbinic principle of pikuach nefesh; that the obligation to save life supersedes Jewish law.
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Clam
JWFacts - on the subject of pikuach nefesh I'm also intrigued as to why the blood issue was never one of the Commandments. In this context the sabbath observance was more important than the blood one, therefore there was even more reason to let saving of life supersede laws.
Clam