Thank you Marvin, finally some hard statistics. If I read correctly this was based on only one type of medical issue: severe anemia.
It should also be noted that the following procedures may also require or absolutely reguire a transfusion to save a life. And as much progress as has been made with bloodless surgery one has to understand that if we go back to 1945 when the blood doctrine was first proposed proceedures were a great deal riskier then today. Even by 1961 when it became a shunning offense........ open heart surgery, cancer treatments etc. etc. were still primitive by today's standards. I believe that if we apply your figure of 50,000 deaths, which you based on very reasonable statistical evidence, to any number of these other proceedures the number of deaths world wide might easily have been 10 times greater.
general surgery,
cardiothoracic surgery (heart and chest),
orthopedics (bone and bone diseases),
hematology (blood diseases),
emergency surgery to replace blood loss from major accidents,
intensive care treatment,
renal surgery,
treatment of newborn babies and children,
Some treatments involved with pregnancy and childbirth.
Some treatments for cancer
For those lurkers who would like to think that in modern times we are beyond the horror of tragic loss due to a lack of a simple blood transfusion..... look through your Yearbook and note the amount of JW's living in third world countries where little or no replacment therapies are available for bloodless treatment.
Also reflect on the fact that this doctrine is unsupported by the bible since it's only application in the OT and NT was dietary. Also note that Jesus never even mentioned it! And not even the most conservative of orthodox Jewish Rabbi's.......... anywhere in the world............ refuses a blood transfusion on religious grounds.
