In my experience the greater population of Jehovah’s Witnesses is mystified by Watchtower’s blood doctrine.
The typical member of the community believes Jehovah’s Witnesses abstain from blood and that is that. They tend to think Watchtower’s doctrinal position related to blood has remained rock solid since its inception in 1944.[1] Nothing could be further from the truth.
As an example of how much this doctrine has changed take a look at just two of its provisions.
Blood products Watchtower terms fractions
At one time Watchtower’s blood doctrine expressed a scriptural ban on all blood fractions. But contemporary Watchtower doctrine does not ban any blood fractions. The difference on Watchtower’s doctrine related to what it terms “fractions” could not be greater; it is completely reversed from its historic position.
Autologous[2] blood transfusion
At one time Watchtower’s blood doctrine expressed that, without exception, any technique involving blood that comes within the definition of transfusion is a technique that definitely ran contrary to the Bible. If some of a person’s own blood was drawn and completely removed from their circulatory system for only a few moments and then transfused it was considered a breach of biblical prohibition. But contemporary Watchtower doctrine does not prohibit autologous blood transfusion when performed as part of what Watchtower loosely terms a “current therapy”. This is true even if the blood is completely removed and sometime later transfused. Again we see a dramatic change in Watchtower doctrine that could not be greater in terms of autologous blood transfusion performed during surgery or as part of what Watchtower terms a “current therapy”.
The net effect
Today's Watchtower doctrine does not ban transfusion of anything whatsoever from blood, so long as what is rendered from blood is sufficiently fractionated before transfusion. This reality is not well understood by the average member of Jehovah’s Witnesses who insist to the general public and medical professionals that their community abstains from blood and that is that.
Even when Jehovah’s Witnesses say “But we do abstain from accepting transfusion of whole blood, red cells, white cells, platelets and plasma” it is a false claim. This is because today’s Watchtower blood doctrine does not ban autologous blood transfusion so long as it is part of what Watchtower terms a “current therapy”. Witnesses who accept these blood transfusions are accepting transfusion of whole blood, red cells, white cells, platelets and plasma.
Marvin Shilmer
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References:
1. See the article Blood — What Happened at Watchtower in 1945?
2. A less often applied but equivalent term used in contemporary medicine is autotransfusion. One version of this is termed acute normovolemic hemodilution (ANH).
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