Scientists create blood from human stem cells

by seattleniceguy 13 Replies latest watchtower medical

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  greendawn

  The GB are whimsical in their views on blood I don't think they will see such a new therapy as valid for the JWs.
  
  I think that as long as someone can use a doctrine change as a basis to sue for loss of relatives due to the blood ban they will not make it, their manouverings here are purely legal and they calculate their every move with extreme care since they are walking in a minefield.
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  Scully

  The Watchtower has OK'd organ transplants, right?

  Would this include bone marrow transplants? (This isn't rhetorical - I don't know what the traffic light of truth says now - red or green?)

  Red and white blood cells are manufactured in the bone marrow.

  Bone marrow transplants - as far as I know - are OK for JWs. It seems likely, though, that the only reason they said it was OK is due to the fact that finding an appropriate donor candidate to match the recipient is extremely rare, particularly if donor and recipient are not related to each other.

  I have been on the International Unrelated Bone Marrow Donor Registry for almost 6 years. If you are a potential match, they will call you. I have not been called. I have been a regular blood donor for the same amount of time. I have the blood type known as Universal Donor, and the nice folks at Canadian Blood Services call me like clockwork every 7 weeks.
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  Midget-Sasquatch

  This is awesome. The article mentioned that they were able to get embryonic stem cells to differentiate into the blood cells. What would also be cool is if they could devise a method that uses the hematopoietic stem cells naturally within the marrow (the blood cells actually originate from them). That way the whole touchy embryo issue may be side-stepped.
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  rebel8

  This would mean it is blood from an individual's own body, so it should be OK to use, even from a JW perspective.

  
  

  
  Used to be they required all blood removed from the body be poured on the ground, not re-used. If this was the '70s, I have no doubt the wts would ban this procedure, claiming the stem cell was just a blood cell wannabe, kinda like a blood cell fetus, so it should be treated the same as a real blood cell. Who knows how they will view it today.

  Joke: What type of sandals do GB members wear?

  Hint: flip flop flip flop