Watchtower No Blood Card

by Lee Elder 14 Replies latest watchtower medical

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  Lee Elder

  Daniel: Why don't you post this at AJWRB.

  Yada Yada2: I'll add them.

  Lee
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  yadda yadda 2

  Thanks Lee.
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  Lee Elder

  The references regarding a significant percentage of Jehovah's Witnesses accepting blood were added to the article and I am posting them here as well.

  Lee

  For these reasons, we believe that it is incumbent upon emergency room physicians to verbally verify the level of commitment to the current Watchtower policy. Especially in view of the fact that it is well-known a significant percentage of Jehovah’s Witness secretly oppose the policy and feel coerced into carrying the blood card or risk exposure as apostates with subsequent shunning.1,2,3,4

  References

  1-Findley LJ, Redstone PM (March 1982). “Blood transfusion in adult Jehovah’s Witnesses. A case study of one congregation”. Arch Intern Med. 142(3): 606–607. doi:10.1001/archinte. te.142.3.606.
  PMID 7065795.

  2-Kaaron Benson, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute Cancer Control Journal, Vol. 2, No. 4, November/December 1995, “Therefore, while most adult Jehovah’s Witness patients were unwilling to accept blood for themselves, most Jehovah’s Witness parents permitted transfusions for their minor children, and many of the young adult patients also were willing to accept transfusions for themselves.”

  3-Gyamfi C, Berkowitz RL (September 2004). “Responses by pregnant Jehovah’s Witnesses on health care proxies”. Obstet Gynecol 104 (3): 541–4. doi:10.1097/01.AOG.0000135276.25886.8e. PMID 15339766. “This review refutes the commonly held belief that all Jehovah’s Witnesses refuse to accept blood or any of its products. In this population of pregnant women, the majority were willing to accept some form of blood or blood products.”

  4-Empirical data suggest to us that the current level of dissent may be significantly higher. We base this upon the conversations we have had with Emergency Department Physicians and Anesthesiologists at medical conventions.
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  tim hooper

  My brother Mike has just spent days in hospital following massive blood loss. He wrote this at Topix earlier today:

  "I 've never before been in a situation where the transfusing of blood was vital to my survival. Having little blood in your system is just like suffocatiing - no matter how much you puff and pant, you're slipping into permanent unconsciousness and you're entire being is screaming for relief, a truly horrible death. Anyone who would withold the remedy on the basis of some tin-pot religion's edicts can only be totally bonkers."
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  BluesBrother

  Another reason for not carrying the AMD (blood card) by certain Witnesses of my acquaintance is that they cannot get their heads around the current policy re. fractions.

  They are somewhat torn. Their heart tells them to abstain from all blood intake, whole or in parts. They reason that this is what they always believed to be right and "it is what the Bible says"...but their head thinks "Why should I abstain from something and maybe die, when other prominent brothers in high standing are going to accept it and still live forever?

  Since they can't make up their mind and don't understand the long words anyway, they end up not carrying it and just hoping for the best.