1961 Blood, Medicine and the Law of God
Pg. 13-14: Is God's law violated by these medical procedures that involve the use of blood? Is it wrong to sustain life by administering a transfusion of blood or plasma or red cells or others of the component parts of the blood? Yes! The law God gave to Noah made it unlawful for anyone to eat blood, that is, to use it for nourishment or to sustain life. Since this is wrong in the case of animal blood, it is even more reprehensible in the case of human blood. The prohibition includes “any blood at all.” (Leviticus 3:17)
Pg. 15: They know that God required that shed blood be poured out on the ground. Nor are they going to feel that a slight infraction, such as momentary storage of blood in a syringe when it is drawn from one part of the body for injection into another part, is somehow less objectionable than storing it for a longer period of time.
Pg. 39: Although Jehovah's witnesses will not eat blood as a food, nor in medical use consent to any kind of blood transfusion or, in place of it, an infusion of any blood fraction or blood substance, this does not rule out all medical treatment.
Fast forward almost 40 years later and we now have the following.
WT June 15, 2000 p. 30 Questions From Readers
Do Jehovah’s Witnesses accept any medical products derived from blood?
Just as blood plasma can be a source of various fractions, the other primary components (red cells, white cells, platelets) can be processed to isolate smaller parts. For example, white blood cells may be a source of interferons and interleukins, used to treat some viral infections and cancers. Platelets can be processed to extract a wound-healing factor. And other medicines are coming along that involve (at least initially) extracts from blood components. Such therapies are not transfusions of those primary components; they usually involve parts or fractions thereof. Should Christians accept these fractions in medical treatment? We cannot say. The Bible doesnot give details, so a Christian must make his own conscientious decision before God.
Awake August 8, 2006 pp. 11-12 The Real Value of Blood
Jehovah’s Witnesses are well known for taking these Bible commands to heart. They reject all transfusions involving whole blood or the four primary blood components—red cells, plasma, white cells, and platelets. As for the various fractions derived from those components—and products that contain such fractions—the Bible doesnot comment on these. Therefore, each Witness makes his own personal decision on such matters.
Observation: When reading the above 1961 publication one observes the total abstinence of all blood including any and all fractions. Even the “momentary storage of blood in a syringe” was prohibited. Truly the feeling on this matter was a “Zero Tolerance” for the use of “any blood at all.”
WTS claims that Jesus chose the F&DS in 1919 and speaks only through them in dispensing spirit-directed information. One would have to believe that the Lord waited 39 years before he conveyed the “New Light” on this subject in the year 2000. The new understanding went from “Zero Tolerance” on all blood fractions, to, “We cannot say. The Bible does not give details.” Or “the Bible does not comment on these.”
If the prohibition of all blood fractions was not even commented on in the Bible, who made this up?
You would think that Jesus would have the power to convey this vital medical information through his chosen followers a whole lot sooner.