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Written by Randall Watters
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Friday, 16 January 2009 20:13 |
 Reprint of the Sep/Oct 1992 Bethel Ministries Newsletter
The Watchtower objects to the eating and even the transfusing of blood, as most of our readers know. What many do not know, however, are the inconsistencies in their position on blood and blood fractions. I believe the following information will be effective in illustrating the serious inconsistencies in their policy regarding such a vital issue. Countless Witnesses and Witness children have died since the ban on blood took effect in 1945, under the direction of the Watchtower's third president, Nathan H. Knorr. Since the time of Knorr, many difficulties regarding their stand on blood have come up for vote in the sessions of the Watchtower's Governing Body, revealing their attempt to play God in this matter.
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Written by Randall Watters
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Saturday, 17 January 2009 10:24 |
Randy says: In preparation for this article I called Gene Smalley at Bethel on 3/29/07 to make sure he was still alive and kicking. Recently I have had communication with a mole from Bethel who has been there many years, and is privy to certain information from the Legal Dept. regarding several matters, not the least of which is the blood transfusion issue among Jehovah’s Witnesses. Obviously the identity of this person must be kept a secret, especially since they have no intention of leaving at this point. [Gene Smalley as seen in PBS' KNOCKING video, 2006]
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Saturday, 17 January 2009 12:21 |
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article printed in the Jan/Feb 1996 issue of the Free Minds Journal
Dear Randy,
I want to share with you and your readers an experience I had when two Jehovah's Witness elders came to my home to enlighten me regarding the new "technology" that allows for the taking of certain blood fractions with a clean conscience. They came with absolute confidence that they would be able to answer all of my questions. After all, as they had previously informed me, they were fresh out of a special elders' school that taught them all they needed to know about this issue.
First let me give you some background as to my education and first hand knowledge of the topic that we discussed. In 1989 I won $20,000 on the "Wheel of Fortune" (no kidding!) which financed my long overdue education,
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Friday, 16 January 2009 20:41 |
 The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society (WTS) does not see the issue of blood transfusion as being decided by the medical issues. Rather, the WTS's position is determined by its religious understanding, by its ability to interpret Scripture.
In 1983 the "Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses" wrote a four-page letter "To Members of the Medical Profession". Titling their letter, "Blood Transfusion - Why Not for Jehovah's Witnesses?" the WTS stated that the issue is religious:
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Written by Randall Watters
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Friday, 16 January 2009 21:32 |
Reducing the Risk of Blood Transfusions
Blood is a precious resource. According to the American Red Cross, nearly five million people receive blood transfusions every year. In the US alone, somebody needs blood every two seconds... and the need for blood donations increases every year. As we live longer and improve our ability to treat illness and injury, we use more and more blood. Donations can barely keep up with use -- blood centers often have a hard time maintaining the optimum three-day supply. And, if you need a transfusion, you have the added fear of receiving tainted blood.
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Written by Gary Busselman
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Friday, 16 January 2009 20:19 |
 reprint from the Jan/Feb 1997 issue of the Free Minds Journal
Does the Watchtower allow blood to be stored?
Does the Watchtower allow blood to be infused?
If your answer is no, think again!
As most of us know, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society is continually changing their doctrines regarding acceptable/unacceptable conduct of their followers. This has been true in relation to blood transfusion as well. This is an interview with Gary Busselman, a former Jehovah's Witness who lost his first wife over the blood transfusion and organ transplant issues, and who has spent much time researching their changing positions regarding blood.
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Thursday, 23 October 2008 21:47 |
There have been many debates over the question if the Christian may or may not eat blood. At the heart of the matter is the text in Acts 15 13-32 and in particular verses 20, 28 and 29: "For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things; That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well."
Under the Law, we have a number of texts which forbade the practise of eating blood.[1]. However we need to determine if this interdiction under the Law applies to the Christian era, what is termed the Church age.
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Friday, 16 January 2009 21:38 |
In these days when increasing pressure is being put on hospitals to cut costs, with Medicare reductions putting the squeeze on, and hospitals all over the country digging in for the long haul in order to survive into the next millennium, it stands to reason that hospitals will develop new marketing strategies to attract various portions of the patient population. The video tape here referred to is designed to attract Jehovah's Witnesses who refuse to accept certain blood fractions due to their religious beliefs. California is known to be the State with the most members of this sect (although Washington has the most per capita).
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Monday, 22 June 2009 10:48 |
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Lee Elder, Director
Associated Jehovah's Witnesses for Reform on Blood, 2008
Jehovah's Witnesses are known for refusing blood transfusions even if that means suffering premature death. This stance comes from the religion's leadership teaching that accepting transfusion of blood is a mortal sin. Former leadership of Jehovah's Witnesses initiated the religion's blood doctrine on a central premise that contemporary leadership of the religion arguably no longer believes, yet the doctrine is still enforced by the religion under pain of extreme communal shunning.
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Written by Randall Watters
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Friday, 24 October 2008 13:51 |
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The WTS (Watch Tower Society) argument that JWs exercise free choice in the matter of blood transfusions is very much a matter of opinion. The Bible says nothing directly about blood transfusions, so WTS policy makers must admit that their claim that the Bible includes blood transfusions in the statement in Acts 15, "abstain from blood," is purely their own interpretation, and therefore a matter of policy which can be changed.
The WTS teaches that its policies generally are a product of "divine direction", so that JWs believe that their blood policy is actually God's policy. To go against "divine direction" would clearly be against Christian principles. The WTS has often changed policy, especially in the area of medical practices. Since it is unlikely that God changes his mind about acceptable medical practices, it is clear that WTS policy is not necessarily God's policy. Therefore JWs are faced with the choice of deciding whether WTS policy is in reality a product of infallible "divine direction" or fallible human reasoning.
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Written by Randall Watters
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Monday, 27 April 2009 09:31 |
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Latest News
A letter form to notify a hospital that you do not want your child/relative to get blood even though they may have a blood card or be a Jehovah's Witness. (Word document file 12/19/05)
JW Position on Blood (chart) from the Univ. of Pennsylvania Health System (11/6/03)
Update: December 13, 2000
Watchtower's German Branch Office response to the Bulgaria/Blood Stance
Update: October 5, 2000
Watchtower Pushes Blood Deception
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Written by Gary Busselman
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Friday, 16 January 2009 13:18 |
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When I met Gary Busselman, it was one of those days when the phone calls kept coming in all day. This was the day that inspired this issue. Two weeks later, I can’t believe I am sitting here typing this and shedding tears.
The caller was a middle-aged man who had been a Witness for many years, and had left the WT organization some time after the death of his first wife.
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Written by Randall Watters
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Tuesday, 23 December 2008 16:32 |
w63 1/15 p37-8:
"The second reason for our critical times is modern man's rejection of God's Word the Bible. Enemies such as Wellhausen and his prejudiced school of higher critics, Darwin and his evolutionists, Freud and his theories, Marx and his atheistic revolutionists-all these have played a sinister role in destroying the guiding influence of the Bible for many; especially since so many of the clergy have adopted such worldly wisdom. . . . According to Freud, one of psychiatry's chief authorities, religion is a great illusion that man will get rid of someday. Psychiatry stresses, "Know thyself," as if an enlightened self-love is sufficient for successful living. More than ignoring God, analysts often contradict God by advising those with guilty consciences that fornication, adultery and sodomy are not wrong in themselves. The charge rightly has been made that such counsel tends to exterminate the conscience.""
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Written by Randall Watters
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Friday, 01 May 2009 07:35 |
Jehovah's Witnesses take polio victim to assembly and dies
Just thought you might be interested in how I lost one of my older brothers to the JW zealots. My whole family were JWs. Shortly after I was DFd at age 15, my brother contacted polio. Since it was against the WT teachings to be innoculated, he wa the victim of the org's stupidity. I'm sure it was divine revelation that instructed the leadership to match wits with the microbiologists. Another example of the way science and religions was supposed to agree. Anyway Jerry, my brother, was treated in the University of Washington hospital under an experimental treatment program. His 22 year old body responded well and he was able to be taken out of the iron lung and be on oxygen within 18 months. It was time for one of those many Conventions that JWs go to and my mother was anxious for everyone to know my brother was doing well. One of the elders got the goofy idea that it would be in Jehovah's interest to have Jerry attend the convention. The doctor was aghast and said by no means should be taken as it would expose him to infective agents that his immune system was incapable of handling. The results could be life threatening. But elders know best and my parents were urged to bring him to the convention. By the third day he was totally exhausted and began struggling for breath. Seems he was running a fever too.
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Friday, 16 January 2009 16:52 |
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 Below is the Society's press release in response to the London Times'
article.
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Statement to the Media (June 14, 2000)
An article published in the June 14, 2000, issue of a British newspaper
has incorrectly publicized what it feels to be a major change in the
religious doctrine of Jehovah's Witnesses regarding blood transfusions.
In order to correct the misinformation, Jehovah's Witnesses are
providing the following statement.
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Written by Gary Busselman
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Friday, 16 January 2009 20:33 |
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The Watchtower reports on three ways for a Witness patient to receive his own blood to "sustain his life" by simply moving the "right / wrong" choice from The Watchtower guidelines to the conscience of the Witness patient.
(1) The Witness patient can have his blood removed from his body, pumped by a pump, oxygenated, filtered, "briefly" stored in a non-circulating state (WT 3-1-89 p.30), and returned to him "through injections into the veins" by a heart / lung device, as long as the Witness patient "conscientiously reasoned that the blood is flowing continuously and that the external circuit might be viewed as an extension of the circulatory system." (WT 6-15-78 p.30) In 1989 The Watchtower effectively removed the word "continuously" from this condition. (WT 3-1-89 p.30)
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Monday, 05 January 2009 14:03 |
 The author suggests that the Watchtower Society re-examine the scriptural basis of the blood doctrine. We believe that the main conclusions of this study, summarized below, provide a clear scriptural basis for such a reconsideration...
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Tuesday, 23 June 2009 13:55 |
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Statistical extrapolation is impractical at this time to estimate total annual deaths related to the Watchtower organization’s blood doctrine. However there is sufficient statistical data to conclude annual deaths based on at least one medical presentation.
A 2002 medical article by Khadra et al states:
“In the CEMD the very high risk of mortality in women who refuse blood transfusion was highlighted. The death rate in this group was 1 per 1,000 maternities compared with an expected incidence of less than 1 per 100, 000 maternities.”(1)
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Written by Randall Watters
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Tuesday, 23 June 2009 13:59 |
New research to be published in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology has found that women who are Jehovah's Witnesses face a significantly increased risk of death during childbirth. The study found that women in this group are six times more likely to die, and three times more likely to have morbidity (serious complications), than average (compared to the general Dutch population). This increase includes a 130 fold increased risk of death from major obstetric haemorrhage.
Jehovah's Witnesses are a religious society with more than six million members worldwide. For religious reasons, most Jehovah's witnesses refuse transfusion of blood or any of its primary components (red and white blood cells, platelets and plasma), even when red blood cell transfusion could be life saving.
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