Some great points made on this thread. I can share what convinced me that the blood transfusion thing was not a requirement by God. (sorry if some points already covered in other posts).
Number 1: I realised that:
JEHOVAHS WITNESSES DO NOT ABSTAIN FROM BLOOD!!!!!!!!
Because
THEY CAN AND WILL TAKE A TRANSFUSION OF "ALLOWED" BLOOD FRACTIONS/COMPONENTS, ETC. It logically follows that they therefore do NOT obey the command at Acts 15. The organisation is being very hypocritical here. They expect you to die for their interpretations. First you couldn't take any blood. Then you could take some parts of the blood. Then they changed it so that you could take more parts of the blood. Or is God confused? Is that why he didn't communicate clearly with his chosen chanel of communication? Oh, that's right, it's "new light." Ahgain.
Number 2:
Here's reasoning you will never see in a watchtower: Lev 17:15-16 makes the point that if you find something dead and you eat from it, (eating blood) the result will be that God will view you as ceremonially unclean. You must bathe and become clean. That's it. You will not be dragged out and stoned. In fact, although there is an account of someone stoned for not observing the sabbath, there is NO account of stoning for eating blood. As other posters pointed out, you can even sell an unbled animal to foreigners and profit from it, with God's blessing. So, it made me wonder how important "no transfusions" were to God? Did he really expect me to give up my life by not having blood if all the punishment jews got was to become ceremonially unclean or a few more dracmas to spend at the local inn drinking with the boys?
Number 2:
Acts 15:28,29 is a re-take on Lev 17. If it is a re-take on God's requirements, then it is also a re-take on the punishment. As per above para, that means being ceremonially unclean. Go wash your garments and get back in with God's favor.
Number 3:
The other thing is that pouring blood out when an animal was killed was only to acknowledge that the animals life came from God. It was not because there was anything special about the blood itself. When people donate blood, it does not result in their death. Therefore, logically, their blood is not required to be poured out, is it? Ah, you may say, but blood is not to be stored. Well, jw's will have an 'allowed' transfusion of blood fractions. How do those blood fractions end up in the drip attached to the jw's arm? They are collected from hundreds of people and then stored. If it is not to be "eaten", then consider that jw's can now have organ transplants. The society once described that as "eating" and as "cannabalism". Now it's ok. You can have the whole organ, not just a fraction of it. Unlike blood.
In Crisis of Conscience, page 297, the author discusses how blood is a symbol of life. He asks the question "how the symbol could be of greater value than the reality it symbolises"?
I recommend you read the chapter on Blood and Life, Law and Love, in Crisis of Conscience. Please find below the entire chapter in the following link. I find it to be very intelligently and reasonably expressed.
Also, please find below another excellent article on the blood doctrine.
http://www.jwfacts.com/index_files/blooddoctrine.htm
So, this is a bit on why I came to tear up my blood card. Thanks for your patience, I know it was a bit long, but I was once willing to die for this crap.
kind regards
wildfell