Blood, Medicine and Jehovah's Witnesses

APPENDIX

The March 1991 Kingdom Ministry (a monthly ministry sheet for baptised Witnesses only) contained an insert entitled:

Are You Ready to Face a Faith Challenging Medical Situation? The full text follows.

No one thinks much about the possibility of being in a hospital today or tomorrow. Still, "time and unforeseen occurrence befall us all". (EccI. 9:11) Even if you do not accept medical treatment as your preferred form of health care, what will you do to protect yourself from an unwanted blood transfusion should an accident leave you unconscious and you are rushed to a hospital? Yes, an accident or a suddenly deteriorating health situation can abruptly bring you face-to-face with a challenge to your faith.

If you should find yourself in a hospital for any reason, what will you do to maintain integrity if some- one there tells you that you will die without a blood transfusion? Will you hastily accept that this claim truly represents your condition? Are you fully convinced that you do not want blood? Are you ready to face this challenge to your faith and "abstain from blood"? -Acts 15:28, 29.

Successfully resisting an unwanted, spiritually contaminating blood transfusion starts with a firm conviction. Such a conviction must be based on a clear understanding of what the Bible says about blood. Otherwise, you can, in the emotion of the moment, easily be intimidated by someone who claims to know more about the situation than you do. Would you be misled into thinking that maybe doctors know more about blood than God does? Surely, in these circumstances you will want to be "firmly resolved" to do "what is right" in Jehovah"s eyes, no matter what mere humans may say. (Deut. 12:23-25) But do you have to face this challenge all by yourself?- Eccl. 4:9-12.