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... The 2001 blood card that was—then wasn’t.
In year 2001 Watchtower distributed newly worded Advance Medical Directive/Release cards for Witnesses and Identity Cards for their children. Only a few among Jehovah’s Witnesses ever saw these cards and, then, “After further review” elders were told to destroy them. Hence the only Witnesses who ever held these things were congregation secretaries or presiding overseers, or else a newly baptized person between May 3rd and December 20th of 2001.
The story
With a letter dated May 3, 2001 congregations across the United States received their annual shipment of “service forms”.[1] There was nothing particularly unusual or eye-catching about this letter. Congregations received them each year along with inventory of forms for use by the congregation. Like others in the past, a supply of Advance Medical Directive/Release cards and Identity Cards was included for distribution to newly baptized persons and their children and, in January of the upcoming year, to the rest of the congregation. (Back then Watchtower had Witnesses updating their blood cards every year or two.)
It turned out this particular shipment of forms included newly worded Medical Directive cards. Front matter remained the same on these documents.[2-3] But inside the new documents had new, and different language. The May 3, 2001 letter was the release to begin issuing these new documents, initially to newly baptized individuals and their children.[1]
Compared with the previous 1999 card, the new 2001 Advance Medical Directive cards looked like this:
... The 2001 blood card that was—then wasn’t.
In year 2001 Watchtower distributed newly worded Advance Medical Directive/Release cards for Witnesses and Identity Cards for their children. Only a few among Jehovah’s Witnesses ever saw these cards and, then, “After further review” elders were told to destroy them. Hence the only Witnesses who ever held these things were congregation secretaries or presiding overseers, or else a newly baptized person between May 3rd and December 20th of 2001.
The story
With a letter dated May 3, 2001 congregations across the United States received their annual shipment of “service forms”.[1] There was nothing particularly unusual or eye-catching about this letter. Congregations received them each year along with inventory of forms for use by the congregation. Like others in the past, a supply of Advance Medical Directive/Release cards and Identity Cards was included for distribution to newly baptized persons and their children and, in January of the upcoming year, to the rest of the congregation. (Back then Watchtower had Witnesses updating their blood cards every year or two.)
It turned out this particular shipment of forms included newly worded Medical Directive cards. Front matter remained the same on these documents.[2-3] But inside the new documents had new, and different language. The May 3, 2001 letter was the release to begin issuing these new documents, initially to newly baptized individuals and their children.[1]
Compared with the previous 1999 card, the new 2001 Advance Medical Directive cards looked like this:
Compared with the previous 1999 card, the new 2001 Identity Cards for children looked like this:
The following snippet images show the change in language in both documents:
General distribution of these newly worded documents to the Witness community was scheduled for mid-January 2002. But about two weeks prior to this distribution, something very unusual happened. Elders received a letter dated December 20, 2001 directing them not to distribute the new cards and, instead, to destroy them.[4]The new cards stipulated a specific type of blood that Watchtower doctrine would have Witnesses abstain from, namely “allogeneic blood”.[5] By stating a refusal to accept transfusion of allogeneic blood this changed document did not have Witnesses refusing to accept any transfusion of autologous blood.[6]
Watchtower’s Branch Organization Manual details meticulous, very extensive and overlapping measures for writers and proofreaders to verify material prior to production. The 2001 change in language went through all these and made it to congregations. Hence the change in language was deliberate. Then, suddenly, just before general distribution another change was made to return to the older language.
To this day Watchtower has never explained why the initial change in language was made, or why it changed back within months. But one thing is sure: turmoil was going on at the highest levels within Watchtower for any of the above to have happened, and this turmoil was over a doctrinal position with life and death consequence.
Marvin Shilmer
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References and end notes:
1. Watchtower letter dated May 3, 2001.
2. Front matter for 1999 and 2001 Medical Directive looked like this:
3. Front matter for 1999 and 2001 Identity Card for children looked like this:
4. Watchtower letter dated December 20, 2001.
5. Allogeneic blood is blood drawn from one person and later transfused to another person. This is transfusion of someone else’s blood.
6. Autologous blood is blood drawn from one person and later transfused to that same person. This is transfusion of your own blood.
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