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JWs and blood transfusions


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Mine was in medical ethics in PA school. It pretty much summed it up as our having the legal authority to override the parents of a child who is in true need, but the line denoting the child deciding for themselves becomes a more precarious one as they reach their teenage years.

 

One thing I find odd is that they do allow their members to take certain faction products, such as RhoGAM. It's pretty ridiculous. That being said, no one wants to give blood unless it's necessary to try it anyways.

They can also take blood faction products, such as FVIII for hemophilia or RhoGAM for erythroblastosis fatalis. The scripture they base their rules on simply speaks of eating blood but they've taken it to the nth degree. That being said, blood transfusions can be a vector for transmission but in a case of life-threatening emergency any odds for a faulty test sort of go out the window. I always try and honor beliefs and wishes to the best of my ability, but would definitely step in if it I needed to fight for the life of a child who wasn't old enough to make such a weighty decision for themselves.

 

Their policy on accepting transplant donations is almost as changing as their history of wrongly predicting the end of the world. They didn't use to have permission for organ transplants but now it's acceptable (except for blood, which is an organ but I guess they don't see it that way).

It's easy to say that this belief or practice is "too much" but it's not really fair to question the morality/sanity/reasonability of this one without addressing the fact that all religions have these [ridiculous, IMO] quirks about medical treatments and/or lifestyle choices. The catholic church not supporting the use of BC as one example. Religions have been forced to adjust their positions over time to try and accommodate the current cultural norms and scientific progress in order to maintain its membership base, which is one reason I can't believe people buy into religion in the first place.

 

Sorry to take the thread a bit off topic.

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