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Jehovah Witnesses & Blood - Page 2

I used to be a JW, in as much as I was born into and brought up in the religion.  I am am not one now,  I chose to leave the religion for a number of reasons, but one thing I will say about the blood issue, as it is such an ISSUE, and i used to get trouble at school from kids who would hear what their parents said and come in and bully me with it.

Anyway one thing that being a JW taught me is that there are SO MANYALTERNATIVES TO BLOOD, the reason that doctors don't want to use them or can't is because they are so expensive - using other peoples blood is easier is easier and CHEAPER!!!  

Are you niaive enough to think that they screen every single sample of blood that is used for transfusions!!! No they dont' cause that would take too much time and cost too much money!!!  That is why you hear about people getting AIDS after having a blood transfusion!!

I do not follow beliefs of JWs anymore but one thing I still would not agree to is a blood transfusion - not because of religious reasons but for health reasons.  As a young JW growing it was something we had to be fuly versed on as it seems to be the biggest problem people have.

Look we live in a world where everyone supposedly supports freedom of speech and life - so why shoulkd people get so riled up about this - there are many religions that ban things but for some absurd reason the world seems to focuson this problem.  Get your own life and focus on it.  I did!!

Blood and Witnesses Jehovah

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Look we live in a world where everyone supposedly supports freedom of speech and life - so why shoulkd people get so riled up about this - there are many religions that ban things but for some absurd reason the world seems to focuson this problem

I understand but in the blood transfussion issue people maybe willing to die instead of having a blood transfussion, that's the point!. I mean, religions in general can ban things from people and some of them may be absurd but we are talking about a situation of life and death where sometimes a young child dies because of the decision of the parents. Now, if the person is an adult, then they can do whatever they want but when the person who needs the transfussion is a small kid, then, I see it very very wrong.

Jehovah Witnesses & Blood Beliefs Religious General

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Now, if the person is an adult, then they can do whatever they want but when the person who needs the transfussion is a small kid, then, I see it very very wrong.

LDS, I understand your feelings because we all hate to see children suffer if we think we can provide an answer.  However, I believe the parents should have an absolute right to raise their children according to their personal religious beliefs.  If it is established that these parents are truly living their lives in accordance with a particular faith, then they should be allowed to practice that faith with their children as well.  I think that is what freedom of religion is all about.  

For example, my faith tells me that drinking tea is prohited, but a lot of recent news reports say green tea is healthy.  What if the government decided that I should give my children green tea each day to help them grow up to be more healthy.  I would object.  Drinking green tea is not an immediate life or death situation today such as a blood transfusion could be, but I would consider it to have eternal life or death consequences, which I think are more serious.

I happen to believe a Church other than JW is the true Church of Christ on the earth today, so I don't see anything wrong with blood transfusions, but JW's believe just a strongly as I do, they just don't believe the same.

Page 2 Blood and Witnesses Jehovah

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LDS, I understand your feelings because we all hate to see children suffer if we think we can provide an answer.  However, I believe the parents should have an absolute right to raise their children according to their personal religious beliefs.  If it is established that these parents are truly living their lives in accordance with a particular faith, then they should be allowed to practice that faith with their children as well.  I think that is what freedom of religion is all about.

Well I have to disagree with you. In my opinion freedom of religion is great as long as it doesn't affect or put in risk a human life.

Blood and Witnesses Jehovah

LDS, I understand what you are saying and I think most people feel as you do.  However, what if God told you not to get or allow blood transfusions, are you saying you would get one for your child even if God told you not to do it?  I think this is JW belief that God doesn't want them to do it.  If they are right (and I don't believe they are) then shouldn't we follow what he wants even with respect to our children?

Just because I don't think it is really a command from God for them not to accept blood transfusions doesn't lesson the fact that they do.   See, that is my problem with telling someone how they can follow their religion or not.  I might not think they are right, but what happens when my Church takes a stand that others don't accept and believe.  Am I not allowed to teach my children to obey that rule or principal.  If we don't teach our children to follow the dictates of whatever religion they are being raised, we can't really expect that they will follow them once they are adults.

Now, I also want to say that I can't imagine not taking every possible step I could to save my child from harm, but I don't know what I would do if I really believed God didn't want me to do it.  :-/  I do try to live my life the way I think he wants me to.

Jehovah Witnesses & Blood

COURT MOVES TO SAVE BABY
Jehovah's Witnesses protest life-saving transfusion

AS LIFE trickled out of a two-week-old baby boy yesterday, the High Court seized the child from his parents and authorised a life-saving blood transfusion.
Ref. Source

Jehovah Witnesses & Blood - Page 2

I agree with LDS, I think children should be protected from having this order put on them if there was an emergency. I think that if an adult makes that decision about their own life, then fine, after all it is their own decision to make.However, from my own experiences, I find some Jehovah's witness households to be very "rigid" and the children must follow suit regardless. I have cousins who are JW, and the children wouldn't even dream of questioning whether their religion was true or not, they just accept that it is. I also worked for 4 years as a nanny within a JW household, I found it to be a real eye opener, and while I can't judge all JW's by this families standards, I found it very offensive to be told to carry the children's card to deny all blood transfusions, and informed under no circumstances allow the blood transfusion, even if it resulted in death! I really hated taking the kids out anywhere, in case something happened, as this is contrary to my own beliefs. I have chosen for this reason to not to put myself in this position again.

Jehovah Witnesses & Blood General Religious Beliefs - Page 2

I understand the belief the Jehovah's Witnesses have about blood, what I don't understand is their use of Acts 15:20 to backup no blood transfusions.