On Monday a number of UK newspapers reported that the son of two devout Jehovah’s Witnesses WILL be given a blood transfusion if he needs it, following a ruling by a high court judge.
Doctors told Mr Justice Moylan that the “very young” boy was suffering from severe burns following an accident, and might need a blood transfusion.
The ruling was requested by a health trust with responsibility for treating the boy, and was granted after the judge concluded that a transfusion would be in the youngster’s best interests irrespective of the “deeply held views” of his Witness parents.
The child’s name and age have not been released.
In delivering his ruling, Moylan expressed his hopes that the boy’s parents would understand.
“I am extremely grateful to [the boy’s] father for so clearly and calmly explaining to me the position held by himself and [the boy’s] mother,” he said. “I have no doubt at all that they love their son dearly. I also have no doubt that they object to the receipt by [their son] of a blood transfusion because of their devout beliefs. I hope they will understand why I have reached the decision which I have, governed as it is [their son’s] welfare.”
Though controversial, this type of ruling, as recently fictionalized in Ian McEwan’s best-selling novel “The Children Act,” is quite commonplace.
Earlier this year another high court judge, Mr Justice Keehan, ordered that surgeons at the Birmingham Children’s Hospital could administer blood to a baby irrespective of his parents’ religious views. And there have been similar reported cases in Australia and New Zealand.
The dangers posed by arbitrarily insisting through religious dogma what types of medical treatment should be accepted or declined were recently highlighted in the tragic case of Adeline Keh, who died earlier this year after refusing blood following a C-section.
Further reading…
Short and sweet. When reading scriptures in the Bible make sure you don’t pull them out of context but read the before and after scriptures to understand fully their meaning and context.
Any scriptures in the Bible dealing with the mentioning of taking blood primarily centers around animal blood and animal sacrifices. Yes it is healthy not to drink animal blood as the creator has stated in his word but there is no where in the bible to abstain from Blood Transfusions between humans.
So WTBTS aka Governing Body stop twisting and turning the scriptures because you are Blood Guilty for causing many in your ranks to lose their life in the name of a manmade Doctrine.
The prohibition of blood was from an animal that forfeited it’s life for the benefit of a human. i.e. sacrifice, food, clothing. With a blood transfusion nobody forfeits their life. So the WT have made a major mistake in interpreting that transfusions are forbidden
At least if a child is under age their life can be saved by a judge who can overrule a parents decision to let their child die if their is no other alternative to blood. This seems to be happening more and more, and let’s hope judges continue to show common sense in these matters.
If an adult wishes to refuse blood then that is their choice, but a parent cannot presume to take the life of a child.
Two thirds of children brought up in the faith leave sometime in their adulthood, which reinforces the belief that it is in the child’s long term interest for the judge to overrule a parents decision to allow their child to die.
Seems to me that the parents may have been trying to get this to happen, that way they could save their boy if needed and still be able to look at the elders and say “it wasn’t us”
Mercy, not Sacrifice. Matt, 9/13, There is no law , God’s, or
Man’s, that require someone to die, when the remedy is at
hand.
We all love our children whether we’re J,Ws, or not, but when
the brain has been cauterised by continuous indoctrination
( brainwashing ) causing us to make irrational and dangerous
decisions. Then the law is justified in taking the matter out of
our hands.
What a terrible tragedy, and lifelong heartache, to lose a child
due to an ancient law, concerning nothing more than
“Un-bled Meat.
They promise a wonderful life in the “Future” but create plenty
of misery in the “Present”.
Do not touch on Jehovah’s food: Blood, fat and Testicles…
How can we see all these sacrificed lives and keep quiet??
Ref: http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/l/r1/lp-e?q=Leviticus+3%3A16-17
How long will it be before we cease to tiptoe around ‘deeply held beliefs’ so long as they bear the title ‘religion’?
Beliefs of all kinds, religious or otherwise, no matter how ‘deeply held’, can be noble and benevolent, certainly, but can equally well be senseless and even barbaric.
Such beliefs may well exist only because their bearer has been subjected to ‘undue influence’ or overdosed on mind control.
Maybe I move in restricted circles, but I have never heard anybody act reverential towards the ‘deeply held beliefs’ of a Nazi who is determined to rid the world of Jews, Gypsies and gays.
It is good to know, though, that the laws of England and Wales, for all that they are framed for a community that enjoys freedom of religion, will not condone, for example, ISIS sympathisers whose ‘deeply held views’ impel them to behead infidels or the wrong sort of Muslim any more than they will allow Jehovah’s Witnesses to carry through their gruesome rites of child sacrifice.
It’s nice to see this logical stance being taken. 5 yrs ago as a JW mum I secretly decided against signing the hospital consent form prior to c-section consenting to my death without a transfusion. What God would really want me to die leaving behind a grieving widower and newborn baby? We made a sudden exit from JW earlier this year, wish it had been sooner. Thanks John Cedars this website saved our sanity!
I am glad that the judge came to this decision. It is immoral to impel a child to follow beliefs that it’s parents hold on issues that affect the child’s life. I hope the poor little child makes a swift and full recovery from their burns, with or without a blood transfusion.
Let us hope that the madmen on the gb don’t decide to disfellowship families who do not abduct their child out of the hospital when a blood transfusion is the only viable option to prolong the life of the child! Those nincompoops have done as strange a thing as that before.
Every news article about this issue helps the general public know about this absurd and evil prohibition. If only the hospital had promised to remove 2% of the blood content! Then there would not have had to have been a judgement at all!!
Peace be with you,
Excelsior!
I thought the Judge made a “without prejudice” decision. Every adult should have the right to make their own decision without religious sanctions.
Wheather a person agrees or disagrees on their acceptance of blood is a personal decision, in my opinion.
The Watchtower in a back handed way agrees with this point of view. For instance, if I accept all the blood fractions permissible at once that would constitute a 98% whole blood transfusion. In my mind, it’s a matter of conscience and not a matter religious oversight.
How many, a Witness must ask the Watchtower Society, fractions simultaneously can I received?
Apologies for the multiple posts.
If, without disrespect, God poured out Christ’s blood to save lives is it right for a Christian to accept that blood and is it right for a Christian to follow that as an example? Thoughts to ponder.
Gary,
I’m a little confused by your responce. I hardly belive that God would desire us to sacrifice our children. Certainly this is not the kind of God I would worship.
It really comes down to commen since. There is a huge difference between drinking an animals blood and accepting medical treatment that would save your child’s life. Did you know that back then organ transplants were not allowed because it was viewed as canabolisom in he WTS? How many people died until the GB changed their mind? Lives are being lost because the GB goes through great lengths to seporate their belifes from others. They do not care at all about their followers.
What about these poor children? They don’t even have a chance to fight for their life. I’m so glad some are choosing to fight for them
When I first started studying in the 1960’s, I could not believe that anybody could be so terrible so as to let their own child die for want of a blood transfusion but after a year of brainwashing, I became convinced that it was God that was telling me that blood transfusions were some kind of poison and just to even look at it was repulsive to me.
Thank heavens, I never had to be faced with the decision to have an operation and have to show them my blood card but all those years, I faithfully carried it in my wallet in case I should be in an accident. Once I realized that God, if there even is a God, didn’t have anything to do with the Watchtower any more, I threw my blood card away and I look at it as signing my “death warrant” to be carrying that card.
But five years ago, my youngest daughter would have definitely died without platelets. She had been inactive for about 2 years and had married out of the “truth” and she had to have an emergency C-section to save her life and the live of her unborn twins. Two brothers from the local Kingdom Hall came over and all they did was read what had been in the Kingdom Ministry and from that, she was expected to give up her life and leave her babies with no mother and her husband to take care of the babies by himself. She and her husband were in the most distress you can possibly imagine with all the doctors around and those 2 brothers from the Kingdom Hall around and the doctors telling her that without the platelets, there was no way she’d survive the operation. She asked me what to do and I told her that I’d take the platelets.
For years, she suffered with a guilty conscience because of that but when she finally woke up to the truth about the truth last year, she can finally feel good about her decision.
Nobody can possibly understand the pressure that the Society puts upon people to refuse blood and for what???? It isn’t them that has to give up their life!!!
There is no way in hell, that those men should have any right to make that decision for anybody else except for themselves. They don’t speak for God and they never did. They are blood guilty for every person, baby, child, or adult who has ever died because of the Society’s making that decision for them and anybody who caves to that pressure has to live with that for the rest of their lives.
They may think they made the “right” decision to obey God at the time, but afterwards, they must remain believing that until the day they die or if they ever doubt the Society’s claims to divine authority, the pain would be immeasurable.
The best thing to do is to let the child live with a blood transfusion and take the consequences. You can’t bring the child back to life if they died without the blood, but if they let the child take the blood, they can go to the elders and tell them that they were under too much duress and later on, if they ever have doubts about the Society, they will be able to live with themselves because their child’s life was saved and they did make the right decision. You can’t bring back a life but you can save a life and that is the most important thing.
I used to look at Witnesses as the only ones going from door to door, spreading the “good news about the Kingdom” and now I look at them as predators, spreading “untruths” from door to door, making people act crazy and against all humane reasoning ability.
Apologies for any confusion. Of course I do not recommend or mean that a person should or would sacrifices their children. . . absolutely not. And that’s why I tried to reason from it from a JW point of view, a stop and think sort of question. To many honest lives have been ruined already in lots of ways.
Again, apologies for any misunderstandings and a poor education. x
This a post is a not a religious debate although it involves religion in my mind this is a moral debate, the right to choose.
If I may?
THE Issue of BLOODY ??TRANSFUSIONS !! It is easily can be Dismissed as the Biggest HOGWASH ever.Yes there are dangers from Blood & preferably I would avoid it IF Possible but in a Life or Death Situation Love,Justice & Mercy prevails over Strict adherence to Law & Preservation of life is paramount.Blood Fractions weren’t allowed in the 1960s but were in the 1970s .Here we go again NEW LIGHT??? Where are my SUNGLASSES!! But the biggest NAIL in the COFFIN??? For the Governing Body is the only way to get blood fractions is by A SATANIC(Naughty Word) WORLDLY PERSON donating blood.So we Jws are quite happy to save our lives with a worldly persons blood but can’t donate blood to save our own children’s lives!!! How VERY SELFISH & Please Governing Body can’t YOU SEE the HYPOCRITICAL IRONY of it all!!!!!!
There are many moral codes/cultures in the world, I know I’ve lived a few.
We, everyone included, rear our children up in the best way we can and with the best moral codes we know, that’s not to protect Jehovah’s witnesses, that’s what we do.
There are many religious cultures that do the same.
The jews, for instance, circumcise an 8 week
child but that is there right to do so Many of the Jews I’ve met are very devout. That is their choice. Did the child have a choice? Would it have chosen and which way? We do the best we can.
The reason the Judge decided to given the permission to the hospital shows he made a moral decision, the welfare of the child. I believe that it was the correct one, why?
Because, and there’s no question this is a moral issue, because Jehovah’s witnesses do not know themselves. Their doctrines constantly evolve and change and in some cases were and remain downright dangerous.
Society (as a whole) is beginning to understand religious abuse. They understand that some people aren’t given a choice to
choose. I believe the judge understood this.
The judge, in my mind, made the right
decision.
And I honestly think that Jehovah’s witnesses are bullied into it.
Is accepting a blood transfusion prohibited in the scriptures? That is for you to choose. It’s a moral code.
I’m right in thinking, I believe, that the society has encouraged publishers to have an Elder as a health advocate in medical emergencies. Be careful this gives them aceess to your medical files.
Gary you are right they are bullied into it … Fear of disfellowshipping & shunning from family. If JWs were frightened of Jehovah there wouldn’t be any Fat JWs as Greedy persons will not inherit Gods Kingdom!! And not one of 6 million Jews came out of Concentration Camps fat .Lack of calories = Thin person Nothing to do with genetics,Thyroid Except in about 1% of cases .Jws will disfellowship you if you SMOKE One cigarette in the Kingdom Hall but thousands can turn up at conventions looking like HUMPTY DUMPTY & no counsel whatsoever.But under mosaic law Gluttons were stoned to death so Governing Body where is your CONSISTENCY!! 1 COR.9v5,6
If you haven’t signed anything you’ll be fine.
If you have. Ask for a review of the document. When they show you it ask them you’d like to update it. Invite them round with the new one and the old then say (after they arrive) your tired and want to go to bed. Ask them to leave the documents and you’ll read them properly tomorrow. . . Then forget about it. The choice is yours.
They’ve really bothered you picklebrain. That’s what happens when your not given a choice. The Watchtower stands guilty of religious intolerance.
How tragic for this child. They will have to live with the scar of sin and knowing their failure before God for the rest of their life. How much better to die faithful and remain safe in God’s memory! Living a life alienated from God is but a shadow of real life – one filled with anguish, despair and the gnashing of the teeth. People who submit to blood transfusion are putting themselves before God, and such selfishness is the worst form of betrayal.
Thank God for the Governing Body who guides us in these last days.
I am not allowed to use my conscience with a blood transfusion. That is religious intolerance.
Apostates will face certain judgment.
quote “Thank God for the Governing Body who guides us in these last days.”
Yes it is obvious that the GB is guiding JW, not Christ.
As if God would have anything to do with the manslaughter of innocent children by JW parents that are guided by fallible uninspired men, who in the past have changed their views on organ transplants, fractions, vaccinations, to the death of JW, that are no allowed to have these to late for those that allowed these men to make decisions on life and death matters, where ones Christian conscience is what should be their guide.
Gary says: “I am not allowed to use my conscience with a blood transfusion. That is religious intolerance.”
…
Let’s get real here. You can do anything you want with your conscience. What you cannot do is claim to be one of Jehovah’s Witnesses while doing these dirty deeds. It’s a bit like saying: “the Jewish synagogue kicked me out for doing Nazi salutes, they are so intolerant” … No, you are free to do Nazi salutes, but the synagogue as a private organization can expel you for doing something repugnant to their values. In like manner, you may do whatsoever you please, but the congregation has every right to uphold Christian standards by acknowledging that your actions remove you from a position of divine favor.
I remember when I lived on a canal boat:-)
I was sailing through an affluent village. I had to stop to buy some petrol from a nearby station (I was hibernating for the weekend). Anyhow I was knocking my last peg in to tie the boat up and this man’s head popped over his wall and he says to me, “are you staying long”? And i said to him, it’s not because I’m Jewish is it”?.
So what does your conscience say to me about my use of fractions please?
How many fractions will you permit me to have?
If I had one to many for your conscience to like would I be doomed by you and at what point?
Would I be a gross sinner because of Your conscience ( please clarify) and even before Gos judging at that?
So please define the number of fractions I can have simultaneously please.
On a personal note I have never had a blood transfusion nor decided what to do if I ever needed one and here I am already standing condemned.
@Apostates Will Face Certain Judgment, have you ever lost a child because of refusing for him or her to have a blood transfusion? You said “In like manner, you may do whatsoever you please, but the congregation has every right to uphold Christian standards by acknowledging that your actions remove you from a position of divine favor.”
Who is it that determines that if parents chose to let their child have a blood transfusion to save it’s life, that they have lost their position of divine favor? Is it the congregation or God? How can you prove that these parents have lost divine favor with God? Where in the Bible do you get that from, or is it from imperfect men’s opinion of what the Bible has to say about blood transfusions, since blood transfusions are not mentioned in the Bible?
The Watchtower claims to be “spirit” directed, not inspired of God. So, that means that they can pray over a matter and that’s it. God is not directing them or inspiring them. If that were so, then they’d never go back on anything and call it “new light” when they change their very “imperfect” opinions and that includes life and death matters such as blood transfusions, which like I said is not in the Bible.
Abstaining from blood can mean not being a killer. It can mean a lot of things and Jesus broke the sabbath law in order to save an animal. Isn’t your child’s life worth more than an animal? Think about it. It is so easy to say something that caviler when you are not the parent of a child that has just died and you will have to go home to an empty bedroom or an empty crib and face what could have been for the rest of your life.
You should never judge what a parent will do in order to save the life of their child and to say that God has judged them as unworthy, is presumptuous. God does have arrogance and that is the height of arrogance.
I meant to say that God “hates” arrogance.
Many years after I left I still had a phobia about blood transfusions. Not only do they forbid it but they are good at making people afraid. It’s a horrible thing to make people so afraid that they would give up their own lives to please this organization. Forcing people to make that decision for their children is criminal. I am glad it is being taken out of their hands.
Ya know, I remember studying the Revelation book and one thing that stuck out was a reference to human sacrifices. In a nutshell, it correlated young ones who went to war as being sacrificed to the God of War. Well, at least they were doing it for a greater good.
The Watchtower Brotherhood, on the other hand, have conditioned the rank and file brethren to “SACRIFICE” their children to the 8 or 9 Demigod Overlords of the Watchtower by prohibiting blood transfusions. The mythological bible didn’t account for today’s technology. Its only purpose was to control the masses, nothing else. Transfusion prohibition is yet another conditioning technique used to further strengthen their control over the weak minded, down-trodded, outcasts of society, and hopeless individuals easily influenced! The Demigod Overlords know it, and are experts at deception and mind control!
@Apostates will face Judgement. The HOLIER than THOU BLOGGER who will Die at Armageddon for associating with Apostates on this website which the Governing Body tell us not to do.Naughty Naughty Disobedient Person you are!!!
Frankly, all the apostatewilldie etc, Your analogy of the Jewish leadership expelling a member of the synagogue for making Nazi salutes is a ridiculous one.
If the Jewish leadership had a policy that said a member could make a “fraction” of a Nazi salute what fraction would that be before I offened that policy and got myself excommunicated, 1/8, 1/12, 1/4, 1/16 1/2?
Good advice to check the context of a scripture, it’s also important to realize that much has little to do with any godly source but custom and culture. It’s a real stretch to think that every word was meant for YOU, living in country X, Y,or Z in the year 2014, rather than the audience the words may have originally been spoken to and the situation those people may have been in. It’s really not all about US.
I disagree, we don’t allow people to commit suicide if we know of their intentions, with just a few exceptions, we immediately take them to a hospital, fill them with sedatives and anti-depressants hoping that this person might start to think clearer. It’s a terrible tragedy for people to be so filled with confidence that some man’s interpretation of a badly flawed book, is more important than their own life. None of us lives in isolation, what we do affects others not just ourselves. The mother who died after a C-section will leave no mother to care for her baby, to nurse and to hold the child, after refusing a blood transfusion that would have saved her life.