“So what is it about blood that sticks in our minds? Why aren't we just as squeemish about organ transplants?”
Joy: A blood transfusion IS an organ transplant; it is a fluid organ transplant as opposed to what is commonly thought of as an organ transplant, namely solid organ transplants such as kidney, heart, liver, etc. You know that, of course, just thought I’d mention it for the clarification of any new readers to this issue.
Solid organ transplants are done out of the public eye, by surgeons in the operating theater of a hospital. Blood transplants are often administered by nurses (under physician’s orders) in a much more public way, right in the patients’ room, within eye sight of family, friends and visiting JWs. The hanging red bag is a very visible “testimony” to the blood transplantation. Solid organ transplantation is performed in a much more “sterile,” removed manner and the mental images are not nearly so striking. Perhaps if solid organs were seen as they were removed from the cadaver fewer solid organs would be transplanted. Removal of fluid organ material for transplantation is usually seen as benign.
For me, unlearning the JW blood issue distortion was a long and painful process. An early step came from a physician telling me that transplantation was not equal to eating. That statement changed nothing at the time except that it haunted me for years afterward. To this day I wish I could find that doctor and thank him for giving me a start down the road to actuate thinking.
DJ’s point from Matt 12 is one of the most powerful arguments from the scriptures that refute the JW blood position, IMHO. However, most JWs probably do not have the nerve to buck the boys from
So, for me, the final breaking point had to come from the BB themselves. It was their word, looking so ridiculous, their lying right to my face, all the while being deceitful, it took all of that and still I was doubtful. But with my life on the line I mustered the courage to say yes to plasma, one of the four forbidden blood components, in order to save my life.
I don’t know how to get a JW or former JW to change his/her mind on this issue short of facing death right in the eye. Having lying deceitful HLC members in the room doing their lying and deceit helps.