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Gene Smalley is a longtime Watchtower insider who writes on the subject of Watchtower’s blood doctrine.[1]
In short, this doctrine prohibits Jehovah’s Witnesses from accepting transplantation of allogeneic blood (also known as blood transfusion) if the product administered is in the form of “whole blood, red cells, white cells, platelets, or plasma”.[2-3]
The Reason
In 1981 Smalley co-authored an article published in a respected medical journal giving the reason why organ transplantation is not prohibited under Watchtower doctrine.[4] Smalley wrote:
Gene Smalley is a longtime Watchtower insider who writes on the subject of Watchtower’s blood doctrine.[1]
In short, this doctrine prohibits Jehovah’s Witnesses from accepting transplantation of allogeneic blood (also known as blood transfusion) if the product administered is in the form of “whole blood, red cells, white cells, platelets, or plasma”.[2-3]
The Reason
In 1981 Smalley co-authored an article published in a respected medical journal giving the reason why organ transplantation is not prohibited under Watchtower doctrine.[4] Smalley wrote:
Organ transplantation is not directly commented on by the Bible. Accordingly, Watchtower doctrine does not dictate one way or another about whether Jehovah’s Witnesses should accept organ transplant therapy. That is what Gene Smalley said.
The Rub
As it turns out, what Smalley said of organ transplantation is also true of blood transfusion.[5]
Just as the Bible offers no direct comment on organ transplantation it likewise offers no direct comment on blood transplantation. Based on this reason, Watchtower should not forbid blood transfusion for Jehovah's Witnesses.
Watchtower’s blood taboo stands debunked by one of its own![6]
Marvin Shilmer
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References
1 See: Blood — Watchtower's Misrepresentative
2 The Watchtower, June 15, 2000, p. 30.
3 “It is a violation of God's command for a Jehovah's Witness to accept whole blood, red or white blood cells, platelets or plasma” said David Goldfarb, chairman of the Los Angeles-area Hospital Liaison Committee for the Jehovah's Witnesses. (A meeting of hearts if not minds, by Anna Gorman, Los Angeles Times, February 2, 2012.)
4 Dixon and Smalley, Jehovah's Witnesses—The Surgical Ethical Challenge, Journal of the American Medical Association, Nov. 27, 1981, Vol. 246, No. 21, pp. 2471-2472.
5 The Watchtower, May 15, 1950, pp. 158-159. For more on assertions made by Watchtower on this point see the article Watchtower’s Deception — Transplantation of Blood
6 Another instance of Watchtower representatives debunking its blood doctrine is found in the article Watchtower’s Answer Shows Blood Doctrine Is False
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