Jehovah's Witness Doctrine Hypocritical Winnipeg Free Press

Thursday March 1, 2007

THE leadership of the Jehovah's Witnesses publicly declares that followers "abstain from blood" in accordance with the Book of Acts in the Bible. Blood that leaves the body has to be returned to the dust of the ground, according to Leviticus.

Following this ruling led to 22 children being 'martyred’ - dying rather than receiving a transfusion-according to the May 22,1994 edition of Awake!  So it's prohibited and that can be fatal.

Yet, the public would be surprised to learn the leadership actually allows for many blood therapies and has frequently changed its doctrine since it began in the1940’s.

I was born a third-generation Jehovah's Witness. My mother entered the religion in the late 1950’s,
a time when both whole blood and blood product transfusions were banned. If taken, she would
have faced severe shunning by our families and friends, as well as God's rejection. In 2005, my
mother died of heart failure after refusing a life- saving transfusion to treat anemia.

Following my mother's death, I revisited the leadership's stand on blood. To my horror, my family did not know that in 2000, the leadership began permitting hemoglobin transfusions that could have saved her.  Hemoglobin constitutes 97 per cent of the red blood cell by weight. It is responsible for transporting oxygen to our tissues. Hemoglobin looks just like whole blood
as it hangs in a transfusion bag.

So, how did hemoglobin, made from stored donated blood, suddenly become acceptable? Had the Bible changed? Why didn't members know? Shouldn't this blood be poured on the ground?

Today, the leadership permits followers to take any "blood fraction" made from donated, stored
red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets or plasma. To make fractions, surplus blood is sold to manufacturers who in turn, separate out the desired blood product. Fractions are made from
many pints of stored blood. Rather than pouring the blood on the ground, I found out the
leadership permitted 2,500 units of donated, stored blood to make one dose of a clotting agent
called Factor VIII, a life-saving treatment used by hemophiliacs.

Interestingly, Jehovah's Witnesses do not donate blood. Is it not both hypocritical and selfish to
accept blood products made from other people's donated blood, but not donate blood back into the According to the website, www.ajwrb.org, the religiously approved "blood fractions" include
hemoglobin (14.8 per cent of whole blood), albumin (2.6.per cent), globulins (1.6 percent),
clotting factors (0.2 per cent), interferon interleukins and wound healing factors (1.3 per
cent), just to name a few.

Since blood is approximately 90 per cent water, (each fraction of water would total a whole unit of
blood if combined) the leadership's blood policy can be likened to Adam and Eve being told not to
eat the apple; but apple sauce, cider and pie made from it are OK to eat.

The leadership does not make clear that the allowed fractions plus water equals whole blood,
instead, it suggests the allowed fractions are "minute." Is it not hypocritical to say you "abstain
from blood" but then in reality accept every blood fraction?

During the 1990s, the leadership repeatedly explained that the decision: to approve the blood
component albumin was based, not on the Bible, but on analyzing the natural world. They reasoned that albumin was not sinful since it is naturally transferred between a mother and fetus during gestation. Oddly, red blood cells also naturally transfer during gestation and white blood cells transfer during breastfeeding. So why does the leadership still forbid, red or white blood cell
transfusions?

Followers are not allowed to pre-deposit their own whole blood for use in elective surgery: Yet, the
leadership permits followers to use their own whole blood or red blood cell transfusions using
cell tagging techniques. How can this be? Apparently, the leadership of the Jehovah's Witnesses wants all to believe its view has not changed. The bottom line is that the leadership touts its infamous "no blood policy" as it proudly martyred those 22 children and their recent actions with the sextuplets.

But, their actions appear to prove they no longer believe in their own policy. If blood is to be poured out onto the ground, the use of blood products and cell tagging should be prohibited. Since this is not the case, why can't all of blood be used to sustain life? The leadership's actions prove its insincerity, yet it stands ready to shun any follower who disagrees with it.

This bizarre hypocrisy would be a curiosity if its effects were not so serious. Fortunately, Canadian
judges have demonstrated that they will protect children from this lunacy. But adults and advanced minors die.

Kerry Louderback-Wood is author of Jehovah's Witnesses, Blood Transfusions, and the Tort of  
Misrepresentation- Journal of Church and State.