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When the Watchtower organization first rolled out its teaching against blood transfusion in 1944 the reaction from Jehovah’s Witnesses was immediate. Untold numbers pleaded to have the teaching rescinded.[1] Instead the Watchtower organization began trotting out bad science. For example,
● 1945: Jehovah’s Witnesses were told by the Watchtower organization that doctors reasoned transfusion of blood is a quicker and shorter road to feed an ill-nourished body than eating food.[2]
● 1951: Jehovah’s Witnesses were told by the Watchtower organization that transfusion of blood is a process that feeds a patient like IV administration of glucose solutions.[3]
● 1989: Jehovah’s Witnesses were told by the Watchtower organization that transfusion of blood is the same as eating blood.[4]
Selling by Myth
To sell its conception that transfusion of blood is eating blood the organization found and quoted various sources. For example, Watchtower quoted Encyclopedia Americana (1929 edition) and French physician Denys (1643– 1704).[5-6]
The problem with these sources (and others like them) is by 1944 good science told doctors that transfusion of blood was not a means of feeding a patient. By the time Watchtower increased its strictness regarding blood transfusion this science was conclusively confirmed.
Real science developed this way:
● 1667: Jean-Baptiste Denys guessed that transfusing blood was a means of providing nutrition to the body ordinarily ingested orally. This hypothesis was based on a notion that mother’s blood is transfused “into the body of the infant through the umbilical vein.”[7] This notion has since been proved false.[8]
● 1887: Dr. William Hunter found that starvation occurs despite blood transfusion.[3] Hunter was a world renowned and well published expert in the field of hematological medicine.
● 1909: Dr. George Crile informed that theoretically and by experiment, transfused blood is of very little, if of any, value as a food for the recipient.[6] Crile was a world renowned and well published expert in the field of hematological medicine.
● 1930-40s: Drs Wipple, Holman and Madden demonstrated that transfusion of plasma proteins offered nutrition but transfusion of red cells did not. All these were world renowned and well published experts in the field of hematological medicine.[5]
● 1956: Drs Allen, Stemmer and Head conclusively demonstrated that IV administration of plasma proteins was a means of feeding patients but that transfusion of red cells was completely worthless as parenteral nutrition. All these were world renowned and well published experts in the field of hematological medicine.[5,9]
Regardless of these well-documented scientific facts, Watchtower’s Governing Body just kept on asserting a myth to support a blood doctrine that the Witness community had from the beginning complained of as unsound.
All this science and much more like it was available to Watchtower’s Governing Body prior to constructing its teaching against blood transfusion and prior to increasing the strictness of it. Watchtower knows of and has often cited authorities behind this science, but to date has yet to publish what these authorities demonstrated regarding a notion of transfusion as a means of eating blood.
What has Watchtower done instead? It has published and continued a myth that transfusion of blood is eating blood.
Upside Down and Backwards
The Watchtower organization’s current position is to prohibit transfusion of red cells but not plasma proteins.
In a bizarre doctrinal twist, this position results in Jehovah’s Witnesses accepting transfusion of plasma proteins which is demonstrated to provide nutritional support and refusing transfusion of red cells which is demonstrated to not provide nutritional support. Said another way, transfusion of plasma proteins is a means of “eating” from blood yet Watchtower doctrine allows it whereas transfusion of red cells is not a means of “eating” from blood yet Watchtower disallows it.
The Myth Continued
To date the Watchtower organization has yet to retract its published notion that transfusion of blood product like red cells is “eating” blood.
Among Jehovah's Witness this omission continues a myth furthered by Watchtower, with a result that tens of thousands of Jehovah’s Witnesses have suffered premature death by trusting what the organization has told them.[10] This perpetuated myth is killing people.
Among Jehovah's Witness this omission continues a myth furthered by Watchtower, with a result that tens of thousands of Jehovah’s Witnesses have suffered premature death by trusting what the organization has told them.[10] This perpetuated myth is killing people.
Marvin Shilmer
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References:
1. Blood — What Happened at Watchtower in 1945?
2. The Watchtower, July 1, 1945 p. 200.
3. Transfusing blood is eating blood?
4. Reasoning from the Scriptures, published by Watchtower, 1989, p. 73.
5. Watchtower’s expert on blood transfusion…
6. Transfusing, Eating — Misrepresentation
7. Watchtower quotes Crile
8. Blood — Transference?
9. Allen et al, Similar Growth Rates of Litter Mate Puppies Maintained on Oral Protein with Those on the Same Quantity of Protein as Daily Intravenous Plasma for 99 Days as Only Protein Source, Annals of Surgery, September 1956, pp. 349-354.
10. More than 50,000 dead
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