Medicinal use of Blood

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In 1961 Watchtower presented the question, “Does [God] permit medical use of blood to sustain life or not?”[1] Watchtower answers the question with an emphatic 'He does not!'

What does evidence show?

Blood as food

Under the Noachian Decree Noah was required to abstain from eating animals without killing [i.e., slaughtering] them first, and he was required to abstain from eating the blood drained from animals slaughtered for food.--(Genesis 9:1-6).

So Noah was not to use as food blood he drained from slaughtered animals. Otherwise Noah was not prohibited from using blood however he wanted or needed. Since animals that die of natural cause did not require killing then the Noachian Decree required nothing of Noah in respect to blood.

Regardless of whether a person agrees with everything in the preceding paragraph, in relation to literal blood it is generally agreed the Noachian Decree issued a prohibition specific to eating.

Blood as medicine

Watchtower rightly points out that contemporary transfusion of blood was neither practiced nor known in ancient times.[2] Hence we have no reason to think Noah would have considered transfusing blood as done in contemporary medicine.

Despite ignorance of contemporary medical science and lack of modern technology, the ancients did view blood as a medicinal substance. Watchtower understands and admits this. For example, Watchtower knows that topical use of blood was reportedly practiced thousands of years ago in Egypt as a remedy for “leprosy”.[3]

Using blood medicinally has a rich history.[4] It was used as a remedy on burns, boils, ulcers of all sorts, wounds, shingles and a host of other ailments or conditions. In many of these cases blood was applied topically to wounds or sores that had been debrided. When ancient healers applied blood topically to wounds they did not know why or how the remedy worked. All they knew was that sometimes it seemed to work.[5, 6] Apparently it seemed to work often enough since the use of blood as a medicinal agent survived in its ancient form until modern medical science advanced the use of blood to what it is today. Though ancients did not understood why it worked, it turns out application of blood poultices did offer healing power for some conditions.

Blood applied to a wound has access to exposed tissue, including our cardiovascular system. Particularly in cases of deep or extensive wounds, when blood is applied it is unavoidable that some of it will transplant to the patient’s own flesh, including their circulatory system. When this is done unintentionally it is thought of as contamination. The susceptibility of a wound to blood contamination is well recognized.

Pain

Pain is a powerful motivator.[7] In the presence of severe pain persons have been known to do just about anything to alleviate suffering. If not their own someone else’s. When the ancients learned that topical application of blood had some healing capability we have no reason to think this information would have been dismissed or forgotten.

Ancient worshippers of God like Noah were not immune to pain. Like everyone else, in the face of suffering these looked for remedies. Would Noah have rejected topical use of blood on wounds as a medicinal agent?

Noah was told to abstain from eating blood [specifically blood drained from slaughtered animals]. Noah knew what it meant to eat, and how to do it. For Noah, eating meant putting food into his mouth and swallowing it.

Noah would not have viewed topical application of blood to a wound any more as eating than he would have viewed blood flowing onto his own wounded flesh during slaughter as eating. Accordingly, we have no reason to think Noah would have thought it wrong to use blood as a topical medicinal agent despite the reality that this use resulted in blood transplantation.

Noah and his offspring were just as susceptible to pain as anyone else, and would have sought remedies for that pain. Given the painfulness of conditions blood is known to have been used to soothe or heal, there is no doubt that Noah used blood medicinally so long as it did not involve eating it.

Conclusion

Watchtower demonstrates an awareness of blood being used medicinally by the ancients, but its focus is on the late-medieval to contemporary period during which transfusion medicine developed.[8] Prior to this period the notion of transfusing blood was virtually unheard of.[9] Primarily the ancients applied blood topically as a healing agent. This more extensive use of blood by ancient healers is all but ignored by Watchtower.

Because intravenous administration of blood is methodologically similar to intravenous feeding—a similarity Watchtower repeatedly leverages to assert transplantation of blood is eating blood—apparently Watchtower avoids a detailed examination of ancient medicinal use of blood because so many of these uses do not fit any reasonable notion of eating blood though we know transplantation was occurring.[10]

In answer to the question, “Does [God] permit medical use of blood to sustain life or not?” the answer is faithful ancients like Noah had no reason to think they should abstain from medicinal use of blood when that use did not involve eating blood. This would have included topical application of blood in attempts to heal wounds, ulcers, burns and other ailments notwithstanding transplantation as we understand it today.

Marvin Shilmer
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References:

1. Blood, Medicine and the Law of God, Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, 1961 pp. 3 and 13-14

2. The Watchtower, May 15, 1950 p. 158-9

3. The Watchtower, June 15, 1991 pp. 9-10

4. MacKinney, Animal Substances in Materia Medica: A study in the persistence of the premitive, Journal of the History of Medicine & Allied Sciences, January 1946, pp. 149-177

5. Of the Herpes, Cutaneis, 1731 pp. 73-82

6. Saclarides et al, Evolving Trends in Anorectal Diseases, Dis Colon Rectum, 1999 October 42(10) 1247

7. Matzinger, A study of the origin and Nature of pain, The Buffalo Medical Journal, Vol. 35 No. 2, September 1895, pp. 137-144

8. Awake, Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, January 8, 2000, pp. 4-6

9. Maluf, History of Blood Transfusion, Journal of the History of Medicine, January 1954, pp.59-107

10. The Watchtower, July 1, 1945 p. 200; The Watchtower, July 1, 1951 p. 415

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