Are blood transfusions a sin?
Obtaining a blood transfusion is more serious for the “witness” than committing adultery. This medical procedure is denied even to children. Here is a quote from a website devoted to research on these things:
“The May 22, 1994 cover of Awake! magazine features photos of 26 children, with the caption: ‘Youth Putting God First.’ Inside, the magazine reads: “In times past, thousands of young people They died for putting God first. They still do, only today the drama unfolds in hospitals and courtrooms, with blood transfusions.”
They say that around 900 Jehovah’s Witnesses die each year because of the blood refusal policy. Perhaps 150 Jehovah’s Witnesses die each year in the United States due to refusal to receive blood.
Yet the “governing body” of the Jehovah’s Witnesses and an assembled audience recently applauded a child who died refusing a blood transfusion!
What does the Word say? Consider this imaginary dialogue on Genesis 9:4:
Q=Ask
JWA = Jehovah’s Witnesses Response
CA= christian response
Genesis 9:4. “You shall not eat meat with his life, that is, his blood.”
Q. Why do Jehovah’s “Witnesses” deny blood transfusions to their people, even if it is the difference between life and death? In fact, many have died and the organization calls them martyrs.
JWA. We refuse to follow the ways of man. Jehovah has spoken very clearly on this matter in giving the Noahic covenant. He told Noah not to eat blood, and therefore we will not eat it. Let the men chase us if they want. God is our judge.
Q. What did you have for breakfast?
JWA. Excuse me?
Q. For breakfast. What did you eat?
JWA. In fact, I had a bowl of oatmeal. What is that to you?
Q. And how did you eat that oatmeal? Was it intravenous? Did your veins open and the oatmeal went through a tube into your veins? Or was it the standard way of eating that is described in the scriptures?
JWA. You make fun of us.
Q. Actually, I do. And furthermore, I challenge you to find any scripture that defines eating the way you are defining it for the Witness cause. The whole civilized and uncivilized world knows what it means to eat. You do?
CA: The law against drinking blood arose in part from the ancient pagan practice of cannibalism and the consumption of live animals. First, the blood must be drained. Then the animal is fit to eat, because it is dead. Then there is the idea that life is in the blood and that life is sacred. Some have seen reference to the atonement of Christ in this decision. In a nutshell: don’t. eat blood. What connection can there be between this simple law and the current medical practice of saving lives by injecting clean human blood into a man’s body? If a man has lost blood and is dying from that loss, is it spiritual to let him bleed to death? Under what authority?
For the record, the most orthodox Jews, and the most liberal ones, and everyone in between, have been grappling with this passage for thousands of years, and not one of them has come up with a rule like the Witnesses’ ” Jehovah”. . Surely a Jew can understand the laws of “Jehovah” from him.
By the way, Leviticus 3:17 forbids eating fat. Is this a regulation of the Witnesses too?
May the Word of God and His compassion prevail among the people of this cult.